Watch, Watched, Watching: What Now?

[Teng Ai Hui]

Thank you to everyone upthread who was discussing Alone, The History Channel's reality series.  I'm currently binge-watching season 6.  It's very entertaining.

From what I have seen so far, taking a bow and arrows doesn't seem like a good choice.

[Isis]

Having a rare day to myself I squeezed in a couple of films that had been on my watch list for ages. First, Girl, Interrupted which I have to say has not aged well. It was a novel adaptation, I think? Maybe the book is better. Towards the end I had a big deja vu feeling. I don't think I'd seen it before but maybe it's just the material - maybe I've seen too many films set in mental institutions? To summarise: underwhelming and predictable.

Then I watched Marriage Story - mixed feelings about this one. In some ways it twanged my strings because it reminded me strongly of my first marriage. Sure, they're both fine actors and you empathise with both characters. But actually it seemed a little hammy and over the top with the emotional scenes. They're not breathtaking in a Michelle Williams emotional scene kind of way - but then what is? Ultimately, what is the point of this...I don't know. I just don't feel satisfied by this film. But at least Laura Dern is great. Quite similar to her character in Big Little Lies, but she does it with aplomb*. 

 

[Iskaral Pust]

We watched Becoming last night, Michelle Obama’s documentary, although I only caught the second half.  We really enjoyed it but it left us so nostalgic and sad to face the dismal contrast that we have now.

We finished Altered Carbon S1 a week or so ago, a rewatch for me but first time for my wife.  We enjoyed it a lot but my wife isn’t eager to jump into S2 based on my description. 

Long work hours meant I’ve hardly watched anything for quite a while. 

Our son is working through The Simpson’s on Disney+.  I started him with S2, and warned him not wrap it up with S6.

[HexMachina]

Finished up the Luminaries which was an easy if unspectacular watch. Will resume Devs next 

[Heartofice]

Highly recommend BBCs Detectorists. It totally flew under my ‘scanner’, but it’s a lovely little comedy from that guy off the Office. I’ve found most BBC comedy to be entirely forgettable for quite some time but this stood out as being of a very high quality 

[Isis]

2 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Finished up the Luminaries which was an easy if unspectacular watch. Will resume Devs next 

Oh, is the whole thing available to watch now? The book was a bit of an effort to get into (this was in my 'read all the Bookers' phase) but I liked it once it got going...

[felice]

3 hours ago, Isis said:

Oh, is the whole thing available to watch now? The book was a bit of an effort to get into (this was in my 'read all the Bookers' phase) but I liked it once it got going...

Yep. I haven't read the book, but it's apparently very different - more or less the same events, but told from other viewpoints.

[HexMachina]

3 hours ago, Isis said:

Oh, is the whole thing available to watch now? The book was a bit of an effort to get into (this was in my 'read all the Bookers' phase) but I liked it once it got going...

Yep, all episodes dropped at the same time on Sunday evening on iPlayer. I will probably give the book a try some time

[Nictarion]

Watched the British horror movie Possum (2018). That was some seriously disturbing shit. On multiple levels. 

[red snow]

I enjoyed Ford vs Ferrari but I'm a motosports fan and was intrigued about a character I didn't know anything about who deserves more recognition. I also liked how they filmed the racing and the general old-school "laid-back" vibe to the whole thing. That said, I can totally see how it's "meh" as well - I just liked the meh

I watched "7500" on Amazon yesterday and it's a great example of "bottle story-telling". The entire thing takes place in the cockpit/front door of the plane and it doesn't suffer at all for it. It probably helps that Gordon-Levitt gives and excellent performance (although the young terrorist is also strong) but the low-key and fixed POV added to the tension for me. It was also done in "real time" which when executed properly always adds to the tension. My only criticism is the very abrupt ending although I can see why they chose that. I appreciated how there were no OTT heroics or silly non-protocol behaviours which made the actual heroics more palpable. 

[Ramsay B.]

1 hour ago, Nictarion said:

Watched the British horror movie Possum (2018). That was some seriously disturbing shit. On multiple levels. 

Is it worth a go? Or just some gross-out shit?

I watched Sunshine for the first time in many years. Still really good, and I forgot how loaded the cast was. I remember not caring for the last third of it on my initial viewing, but didn’t mind it as much this time. Maybe I was just more prepared for it?

[Mexal]

22 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

I watched Sunshine for the first time in many years. Still really good, and I forgot how loaded the cast was. I remember not caring for the last third of it on my initial viewing, but didn’t mind it as much this time. Maybe I was just more prepared for it?

I re-watched it about 6 months back to introduce my wife and still hated the last act. It was near perfect until then.

[Derfel Cadarn]

3 minutes ago, Mexal said:

I re-watched it about 6 months back to introduce my wife and still hated the last act. It was near perfect until then.

The ‘look’ of Sunshine is excellent, a film I wish I’d seen on the big screen.

Need to rewatch, though will be strange seeing Tommy Shelby and Captain America struggling to take down Lord Blackwood.

[Nictarion]

56 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

Is it worth a go? Or just some gross-out shit?

I think so. It’s relatively short (1 hr 25m). I watched it because a YouTube channel I like did a video on it. 

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

After 14 years(!) I’ve tracked down season 2 of BBC comedy Absolute Power (Stephen Fry). 

A series about a dodgy PR firm - a cosy return to the mid ‘00s when Labour were in power, before the economy tanked and we swapped a government who declared war on brown people in another country for poor people in this country.

[RumHam]

Netflix pulled the dungeons and dragons episode of Community because Chang was painted black as a dark elf. Which is somehow both hilarious and annoying. 

[SpaceChampion]

4 hours ago, RumHam said:

Netflix pulled the dungeons and dragons episode of Community because Chang was painted black as a dark elf. Which is somehow both hilarious and annoying. 

I had to look it up:

 

[Scott_N]

On 6/26/2020 at 2:32 AM, Heartofice said:

Highly recommend BBCs Detectorists. It totally flew under my ‘scanner’, but it’s a lovely little comedy from that guy off the Office. 

I enjoyed that quite a bit as well. Unassuming, feel-good series though I thought it got maybe overly sappy in the last season. 

[dbunting]

On 6/25/2020 at 9:44 AM, Teng Ai Hui said:

Thank you to everyone upthread who was discussing Alone, The History Channel's reality series.  I'm currently binge-watching season 6.  It's very entertaining.

From what I have seen so far, taking a bow and arrows doesn't seem like a good choice.

Love the show, just got caught up this week on the previous seasons. Have you watched all of them, because plenty of grouse and squirrels have been taken with the bow, plus it offers mental security. Keep watching S6 and let me know what you think.

[felice]

On 6/18/2020 at 5:22 AM, SpaceChampion said:

I watched season one of Vagrant Queen (from SyFy, which means highly likely it is cancelled soon due to low ratings and being put into a time slot for its death spiral).  It is actually a pretty fun show.  Scratches the itch for light-hearted space opera with scene chewing villains.

A little bit too light-hearted for my tastes, but it's entertaining enough.

On 6/18/2020 at 5:22 AM, SpaceChampion said:

First season wraps up the main season storyline, so it's ok to watch even if it is cancelled.

Hmm... that's a bit of a stretch. One major element gets dealt with, but there's a big cliffhanger involving other aspects of the story. And cancellation has just been confirmed.