Watch, Watched, Watching: Getting Sneaky

[KingintheNorth4]

So I'm flipping through channels, when to my surprise I come across the robot fighting show BattleBots. I had no idea that this show was still on. I still find it as entertaining as I did when I was a kid.

[Astromech]

I'm halfway through How to Sell Drugs Online(Fast). It has its moments. Ok for the occasional laugh. Annoying juggling the subtitles and all of the text messages and social media messages littering the screen half the time.

[Zorral]

Jessica Jones, 3rd and final season -- Disney now owns Marvel so Netflix won't be doing any more of these 'heroes.'  

Trish, a superhero?  The second episode is almost entirely Trish.  It’s Trish training the seemingly superpower that manifested sort of in the very last scene of the finale of season 2.  But superpowers just are, from whatever odd circumstance, not supertrained, right?  Also the actor who is Trish is just not interesting to watch, unlike Krysten Ritter.  Maybe, since Ritter directed this episode, this is why we hardly see her?

So, the structure of this show so far is odd (2 ½ eps in), though I will not describe why I say this due to spoilage.

I will only say that ep 2 is almost entirely Trish -- she even does voice overs like JJ. Howevr, Trish is the perfect, fully insipid, nothing-authentic-about-her, Home Shopping Network host-shill.  Thus she cannot even remotely hold the center screen for action adventure, whereas we can watch JJ / Krysten Ritter, just lie in a hospital bed and be fascinated.

I think I understand ... in only so far ... why these choices were made, but still, we cannot give a shyte about either Trish -- or her mom, who also is given way too much screen time.  We've seen in aggregate  more of those two and the other supporting characters than we have so far of JJ, who is the character we watch for, not them. Nor do we have a clue yet as to who or what might be the Big Bad. But I am only 2 1/2 episodes in.  Krysten Ritter's JJ still makes watching worthwhile.

I know so many haven't like this show, but I've liked it very much, while actively disliking superhero / comix shows to the point where I don't see them in movie theaters or television, and don't follow at all.

 

[JGP]

It's full of negative space and long, return to source pans, but I'm digging Too Old To Die Young so far. 

[Raja]

Posted about this in it's own thread - but watched the season premiere for Big Little Lies S2. It had some good moments, I think Kidman & Witherspoon are carrying that show a little bit. There are a lot of really good scenes, but the first episode had a couple of really bad/ slapstick writing in a couple of scenes, which is a little unfortunate.

Also, the cast seems like it will still remain *very* white, but maybe that will change. It seems like they're going to develop Kravitz's character a little bit, which is good given that she's the least developed of the bunch and also the only POC on that show. 

[red snow]

'When they see us" really is worthy of the hype. It's frustrating viewing but that's the point. I'm also enjoying how each episode has a clear vibe and structure to it. The young actors have a bright future ahead of them based solely on this

[Zorral]

Turns out the driving force of Big Bad in Jessica Jones, season 3, is

Spoiler

he's an incel.

Which again, helps explain why JJ's season was so often unpopular among so many hard core comix type fans.

Spoiler

JJ is so much about female issues and problems, including mother-daughter, female friendships and sisterhood, female rivalry and conflict, bad boyfriends, men who wish to control and dominate, men who hate women.

Still too many people find these matters to not matter and to be boring.  What so many still want from superhero 'stories' is non-stop thump, thud, throw, and general physical, violent havoc and destruction.

 

[red snow]

Considering there was 5 hours worth of material, i flew through "when they see us". The pacing was possibly the best I've seen on a Netflix show. Between this and "Chernobyl" I'm hoping we get a revival of the miniseries event instead of stretching to 10 hours or feeling the need for sequels.

It was terrifying in the sense it's one of my worst fears somehow becoming incarcerated for a crime i didn't commit (my brother had a run in once where it was clear the police fit people into narratives) and seeing examples where you can't rely on the justice system to protect you. It was pretty horrible viewing but there were glimmers of hope and humanity. I really hope logan Marshall green's prisoner officer was based on an actual person as it waa nice to see there are people with basic empathy (even for criminals). 

The only minor complaint is not getting to see those who perpetuated this miscarriage of justice receive their punishment. Probably because they didn't which is appalling. I think the prosecutor lost her lectureship position but don't know what happened to the police involved. I'll watch the Oprah special as it might shed some light on it.

[Astromech]

46 minutes ago, red snow said:

Considering there was 5 hours worth of material, i flew through "when they see us". The pacing was possibly the best I've seen on a Netflix show. Between this and "Chernobyl" I'm hoping we get a revival of the miniseries event instead of stretching to 10 hours or feeling the need for sequels.

It was terrifying in the sense it's one of my worst fears somehow becoming incarcerated for a crime i didn't commit (my brother had a run in once where it was clear the police fit people into narratives) and seeing examples where you can't rely on the justice system to protect you. It was pretty horrible viewing but there were glimmers of hope and humanity. I really hope logan Marshall green's prisoner officer was based on an actual person as it waa nice to see there are people with basic empathy (even for criminals). 

The only minor complaint is not getting to see those who perpetuated this miscarriage of justice receive their punishment. Probably because they didn't which is appalling. I think the prosecutor lost her lectureship position but don't know what happened to the police involved. I'll watch the Oprah special as it might shed some light on it.

I've seen articles online where the prosecutor has been trying to defend herself, but I haven't read them.

The settlement amount seems far too low imo. 

Not surprising several of them left NY. I'm curious as to why they chose Atlanta.

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Astromech said:

I've seen articles online where the prosecutor has been trying to defend herself, but I haven't read them.

The settlement amount seems far too low imo. 

Not surprising several of them left NY. I'm curious as to why they chose Atlanta.

The Oprah special was heartbreaking as well. Some/all of them are still messed up. One of them has pretty much the whole audience in tears at one point. They also point out the settlement only helps them provide for their family. It doesn't fix what they lost 

[Astromech]

Yeah, a good portion of their life was taken from them.

I watched the first episode of the Polish series Blinded by the Lights. Basically follows a cocaine deal gone bad in the very ordered life of a Polish dealer. So far so good. Many many kurwas have been spoken already.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Once Upon A Time In The West  holds up. Logan’s Run does not.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Once Upon A Time In The West  holds up. Logan’s Run does not.

I've re-watched several times Once Upon A Time In The West because it is that good.

Still slowly making my way through the final season of Jessica Jones.  I've been liking it more and more as the 13 episodes unroll.  Things I disliked earlier I now see made sense within what was coming.  But still, none of the actors can hold the screen like Krysten Ritter.  So far (beginning the 9th episode) I waver between a B+ and A- for the series (Ritter gets an A+, of course, just for her JJ, and so does the theme music).

 

[Ran]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

I've re-watched several times Once Upon A Time In The West because it is that good.

Henry Fonda is terrific in it.

There's a surfeit of stuff to watch at this particular time. Two morose episodes of The Handmaid's Tale done so far, two episodes of Big, Little, Lies (second episode has some potentially interesting turns), decided to watch Killing Eve (liked the first season more than I'm liking the second season), tried Billions (bounced after the second or third episode, even though I'm generally a fan of Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis), watched Warrior (guilty pleasure -- the writing is insultingly on the nose, to be honest, but some charming actors and terrific fight choreography means I just turn my brain off for a bit), still have two episodes of Black Mirror, want to try Euphoria which just premiered on HBO, also want to watch Gentleman Jack. Also saw When They See Us, which I think was really beautifully acted and structured but I thought a couple of moments in the later half of the series were too self-consciously "artistic" from Ava DuVernay and detracted a bit. And Chernobyl, of course, which was amazing.

 

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

tried Billions (bounced after the second or third episode, even though I'm generally a fan of Paul Giamatti and Damian Lewis

You bounced too soon.   It takes another ep or two for the viewer to suddenly 'get it,' which particularly means recognizing what the character of Wendy Rhoades is and means.  And for the contours of what is going on to solidify.  It's about then one recognizes what crack writing we've got going on here.  Anyone who appreciated the 16th century + style of Deadwood's dialogs and monologues should really appreciate this, though the references are private school humanities education and pop culture, particularly of the 1980's, and video gaming.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Henry Fonda is terrific in it.

Isn't the character of Frank the only villain role he every played?

Also, one old lady once told me I looked like him when he was young. I look nothing like him. 

[Raja]

I really need to start watching Fleabag. Waller Bridge's previous series 'Crashing' put me off when there was a bit about the whole cast doing 'Indian accents', that rubbed me the wrong way on the series & her as a creator, but I've heard so many good things. 

[dbunting]

Started a couple new things (new to me anyway) this week.

Bad Blood. I guess this was a tv show that is now on Netflix. Based on real life mafia in Quebec. Only reason I have watched it is that a poker friend recommended it, so far it's not very good. Talk about time jumps, this one puts West World to shame, but it at lease tells you it's changing times. I am 4 episodes in and if it wasn't recommended by someone I would abandon it already.

Big Little Lies S2.  I was skeptical since this was supposed to be a one season thing but so far it has been really good, watched both episodes last night. Meryl Streep is killing it and she reminds me of a family member of mine and that's not a good thing! Also, don't know how I missed it before but the one kid is played by the actor that plays Young Sheldon in the tv series.

Euphoria came on last night after BLL S2 so I went ahead and watched the pilot, had never heard of it before. This could be a pretty good show, definitely not shying away from any tough current topics that teens are going through.

[Zorral]

19 minutes ago, Raja said:

I really need to start watching Fleabag. Waller Bridge's previous series 'Crashing' put me off when there was a bit about the whole cast doing 'Indian accents', that rubbed me the wrong way on the series & her as a creator, but I've heard so many good things. 

I bounced off that one about 7 minutes into the first ep of the first season.  Cannot stand hysterical, posh-dirty mouth girls and their o so white girl messes, so it's not for me.  Obvs, many others like it though.  And they don't like Jessica Jones, but I do.  That's why we need variety!

 

[RedEyedGhost]

On 6/16/2019 at 12:01 PM, Zorral said:

Turns out the driving force of Big Bad in Jessica Jones, season 3, is

  Reveal hidden contents

he's an incel.

Which again, helps explain why JJ's season was so often unpopular among so many hard core comix type fans.

So gay incels are a thing now too?  And I'm not so sure he fits the "in" part of incel, but I don't feel like they adequately explained any of Salinger's mativations.

Finished the season earlier tonight, and enjoyed it as a whole but as with pretty much every Marvel Netflix show it was stretched out way too long.  I think it had 6-8 episodes worth of actual show, but, of course, it was stretched out over 13.  Really enjoyed the character arcs of Malcolm, Erik, and Trish

Hans,

  My favorite bits were the Trish and Erik scenes.  Didn't really care what they did with Jeri,

she never was the most likeable character - the Kith and Peter stuff was bad enough, but they threw away every scintilla of likeability that she did have the moment she took Salinger on as a client.