Watch, Watched, Watching: What Now?

[Fez]

Watching Harley Quinn, which is great; as I posted about in the thread for it.

Also, finished Season 6 of Bosch. I was a bit disappointed by it actually, I thought the second half of the season was weaker than the show's been for a while. I think it was weakened by there not really being any mystery to solve, and maybe by a few too many cases being followed.

I need to get back to Babylon Berlin. I was midway through the second season and really enjoying it. But I just sort of stopped a few weeks ago; I think I just needed something lighter to watch.

[Astromech]

I started Nat Geo's Barkskins, based on the Annie Proulx's novel.  I love this period of North American history, so was easily interested and intrigued by the first episode. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Uncut Gems

Spoiler

I swear to Hades I wanted to shoot him myself after KG finally pulled him out of the hole and he turned around and let the loot ride on one long shot. 

Damn good movie just embrace the chaos lol.

[Martini Sigil]

13 hours ago, Astromech said:

I started Nat Geo's Barkskins, based on the Annie Proulx's novel.  I love this period of North American history, so was easily interested and intrigued by the first episode. 

Agreed.... the first 2 episodes are interesting... david thewlis' character is barking mad....lol... and with the tv schedule so light, this is a no-brainer... 

[Ran]

Finished The Great. Huzzah! Good fun, and a surprising slice of drama at the end. There's some uncertainty whether there'll be a 2nd season or not, as originally it was announced as a miniseries, but OTOH Tony McNamara originally pitched it as a six season series, and the play he wrote that it's based on jumps in time (IIRC, he said the first 40 minutes of his play were basically his plan for the first 2 seasons). There are things here and there that make it feel like a door has been left opened to take it into another season, so we'll see. 

Spoiler

I will say, I felt the Dymovs were a huge loose end in the finale. They're present but so inconsequential, yet for one thing Catherine had personally witnessed their decisiveness in violently defending Peter, and Catherine seemed to start pulling at the thread of Grigor's angst and then just seemed to forget about it. Not sure what to make of that, other than it was getting a little over-stuffed.

Other than that, we need to catch up on What We Do In the Shadows. Oh, and I've decided to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm for the first time. Larry David's self-caricature reminds me of one of my favorite literary characters, Jack Vance's Cugel; not so much a trickster, I suppose, but his self-regard makes him so hapless that you can't help but laugh. Into the third season now, and his learning about how his mother did with her illness was so perfectly timed.

Will get back to the Miyazaki rewatch, maybe expanding it to be a general Ghibli watch since Netflix has quite a few of the films that I've never seen before.

[Tywin et al.]

I'm not the biggest Curb fan, but there is one episode that absolutely kills me.

And I've always said Cheryl Hines looks like a 20 year older version of my ex-fiance. And I think she's stunningly beautiful. 

[Martini Sigil]

We're watching the Borgias (Showtime) for the first time.... Jeremy Irons is simply a joy... going to watch the Tudors next.... 

I wish Showtime would keep more shows to 3-4 seasons like these... 

[Tywin et al.]

Reading McConaughey's path is such a fucking trip. Talk about peaks and valleys, but he's a made man for life now. 

For whatever reason my step-father loves Sahara. 

[Zorral]

So. HBO MAX is now up.

I'm not sure it makes any difference to me -- I hardly watch anything on HBO (Have HBO NOW) at all anyway. But this does make TCM available.  I was going to dump HBO this month, but saw that the Perry Mason series was coming in June, so thought I'd wait another month. Then they told me I was automatically HBO MAX too.  I still may dump it.

[RumHam]

Testing out HBO Max by watching The Player. Such a good movie. 

[Mladen]

I have seen some magnificent performances on TV but Cate Blanchett peeling an apple takes it to another level.

To those of you who needs to be told, please watch "Mrs America". It is amazing.

[Tywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, Mladen said:

I have seen some magnificent performances on TV but Cate Blanchett peeling an apple takes it to another level.

To those of you who needs to be told, please watch "Mrs America". It is amazing.

Cate Blanchett is amazing for just existing.

Bow, creature! 

[red snow]

Snowpiercer was interesting enough to keep watching. It's wisely kept the aesthetic and class structure of the film but doing a different story.

I like how they were specific about the length of the train (1001 coaches) as everything felt too small in the film. 

I'm still waiting for the reveal there is more than one train. I know the concept is silly but i feel it would make a lot more sense if the track was cleared more regularly. Am i right in thinking it takes a year to circulate? Given how fast it appears to be going it's probably more frequent than that.

 

[Mexal]

5 hours ago, red snow said:

Snowpiercer was interesting enough to keep watching. It's wisely kept the aesthetic and class structure of the film but doing a different story.

For now... think it's going to pivot midway through.

[Werthead]

Space Force drops on Netflix later today, so will check that out. Steve Carrell and John Malkovich is a bit of a random pairing but could be funny.

Just watched Pacific Rim: Uprising, which I'd been putting off as it got a roasting when it came out and I really enjoyed Del Toro's original. Much to my surprising, I quite enjoyed it. The pacing is of (somewhat too slow first half, somewhat too frantic second) but it's a more ambitious film which actually prioritises the characters a bit more (we get way more development of all the Jaeger cadets than the Russian and Chinese crews in the first film). I really liked that it went "smaller" than the first film (until the last-minute escalation, which was a really good twist), that the "who's the real villain?" story actually snaked back and forth before doing the big reveal and that they showed the new-generation Jaegers being tougher and stronger than the originals without being too overpowered.

It's still a cheesy, cliched film of course with ripe dialogue, but it didn't disgrace itself compared to Del Toro's movie and it was great to be able to follow the actual action sequences in daylight rather than the rain. Even the humour, as bad as it was, was better than the mugging in the original.

Also caught Argo the other day. Pretty solid, but I found the deviations from the historical record to be mostly pointless and slightly insulting (the infamous "the Brits refused to help the hostages!" lie is fairly galling), especially when the accompanying documentary simply sets out all the correct information anyway.

[Martini Sigil]

Finished the Borgias, starting the Tudors... 

[HexMachina]

16 minutes ago, Martini Sigil said:

Finished the Borgias, starting the Tudors... 

You poor soul

[SpaceChampion]

I don't know what thread it was in but someone said they're passing on Space Force just because Lisa Kudrow is in it.  I've watched the first two episodes and she's sidelined.  I may be wrong but looks like she's been written out.

Spoiler

Story jumps forward a year and she's stuck in prison for mysterious reasons, not expecting ever to get out.

 

[Veltigar]

After all the praise The Great was getting, I decided to check it out. I don't know whether its due to the lock down or just a lucky streak, but between this, Harley Quinn and Rick & Morty I have been watching some very good tv lately.

I'm using the words very good and not excellent because I do feel a little conflicted about The Great. It was mostly excellent, right until it wasn't.

Spoiler

I never really cared for Leo. Apart from the funny bit about him supposedly inventing the Moscow Mule he didn't really do anything interesting. The last episode spend way too much time on him and it really did muddle the waters for me. I also loathed the fact that it ends by cutting away from Voronsky's gun as he was about to fire the shot to resume the fight for the palace.

I can't be sure until there is a second season (if there is one), but right now I have a very strong suspicion that the show will return with Voronsky dead on the floor, having been shot by someone else. Like, fuck you show, that's an extremely dull and pedestrian way to showcase her failure

Another failure for the show is doing nothing with Grigor and Georgie. It just seems like the show kind of forgot about them. After all that has happened, I feel like it would have been better if they had spent their screentime on Archie, who was also short-thrifted in the second half of the season.

I loved the humor though. By far the greatest selling point 

Spoiler

the joke about Chernobyl or the kings spraying spit at each other or Voltaire's appearance or the endless repetition of Catherine fucking a horse. Just marvelous really

And the acting (despite some characters being just a tad more on the nose then others). I was pleasantly surprised by Elle Fanning. Before today she's been ghastly in everything I have seen her in, but she was quite good in this. MVP's were Nicholas Hoult (he's putting together a very interesting filmography), Charlotte Hope and the actor playing Archie for me.

I feel like I need this one to simmer for a while before I pass my final judgement on it. I suspect it will remain more positive than negative, but who knows. Sad that there is no seperate thread on it to see some analysis and impressions of others.

[Martini Sigil]

14 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

You poor soul

hahahaha.... is it that bad? ... #CovidBinge