Watch, Watched, Watching: We Need This!

[Vaughn]

9 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

This is a bit self-defeating isn't it.

Not to mention it would preclude someone from watching "Terriers"

[Iskaral Pust]

On 10/22/2020 at 3:14 PM, RumHam said:

Netflix is the worst at canceling things. They figure people subscribe because of the volume of shows they have, and the number of seasons for each show doesn't matter nearly as much. I kinda miss the old days when they'd try to make at least a hundred episodes so they could sell it the show for syndication. 

They do seem trigger happy with cancellations, but (there was an article on this somewhere) the initial season or two are relatively cheap and then the payouts to the show-runner and cast increase a lot  if Netflix renews.  I don’t know why show-runners want contracts structured that way, unless they’re trying to maximize the chance of big bucks and not get locked into a long run of middling money. 

So the economics of streaming are not supportive of investing in quality.  A broadcast TV channel, whether NBC or HBO, only had a very limited number of primetime hours.  They had an incentive to develop a few shows to the highest possible level to win primetime ratings.  And they had plenty of off-prime slots to nurture along a show if they thought it might improve over time and find its audience.  But Netflix is the opposite.  They have no constraint on broadcast so they’re building the widest possible array of offerings, emphasizing novelty and variety over quality.  And so far it seems to work.  Most Netflix shows aren’t high quality but we watch it for 10-13 episodes and then move onto the next one and give it a try. 

[dbunting]

17 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

This is a bit self-defeating isn't it.

Not really. Based on how many shows only get one season, why get invested in something that you weren't even looking forward to? There are certain shows I will watch season 1 of, like The Boys, because I was looking forward to it. There is plenty of other choices out there so I can avoid shows that aren't something I have my eye on.

[Raja]

Watched Luca Guadagnino's Suspria months and months ago - I recently got back to listening to the soundtrack and it really made me appreciate that movie all over again. I haven't seen the original, but I really liked this one. I had no idea what the movie was going to be about but I really enjoyed it even though I don't watch *that* many movies in the genre. Anyway, here's my favourite track of the soundtrack

Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton were both excellent and there are *so* many scenes that have stayed with me since I caught the film months ago.

[Nictarion]

Watched the new season of Unsolved Mysteries. A few of the cases were pretty interesting. Mainly the bipolar military guy found in the landfill, and the two (likely staged) suicides. The woman in the hotel room who might have been some sort of government agent really had me intrigued...

Just like the first season, the paranormal episode was by far the least compelling to me. 

[polishgenius]

6 hours ago, dbunting said:

Not really. Based on how many shows only get one season, why get invested in something that you weren't even looking forward to? There are certain shows I will watch season 1 of, like The Boys, because I was looking forward to it. There is plenty of other choices out there so I can avoid shows that aren't something I have my eye on.

 

The point is that shows are getting cancelled due to lack of viewership so not watching shows till they get past two seasons increases the chances they never will.

[Annara Snow]

21 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

That's what I'm asking, how old is the religion/beliefs? The reason why I mentioned the migrations is that they are more known to us in popular culture. 

How do you expect anyone to exactly date ancient folk beliefs? It's not like they originated at a specific time and had a founder, or founders like Christianity or Islam, and they all pre-date the written records about them by a lot.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

The Craft is as good as I remembered. It's not great by any means, but it's still a classic 90's teen horror film.

[ithanos]

I checked the local cineplex listings a couple days ago and I find Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, remastered in 4k, is showing in Japanese dub with English subs. Didn't think anymore of it but Sunday morning and Google recommends an Akira essay with animation deep-dive. Thorough breakdown, interest piqued. So after that I just had to catch the late afternoon session. But first I searched online for a thorough story recap - its been 30yrs since I first watched Akira and I'd forgotten the details, and although my subtitle game is generally on point I wanted to skim them this time so I could pay more attention to the animation.

Akira, remastered in 4k, was superb.  Why I had not appreciated this more all those years ago I don't know. I'm glad I recapped the synopsis which made it easy to pick up finer details in the story - also helped by the excellent subtitle translation. As a sci-fi, its as good as Blade Runner - both with dystopian futures set in 2019. It ticks so many genre boxes; super power action, cyber punk action, political corruption, police brutality and civil unrest. All with a perfectly matched soundtrack.  As an animated film I can see why many critics have this at the top of their 'best of' list. Absolute kudos to Katsuhiro Otomo and his direction, and his amazing team of art directors and animators.     

 

[Cas Stark]

As part of my annual October watching of cheesy horror films, rewatched the original Amityville Horror, which despite everyone but Rod Steiger and Don Bolin being terrible still managed to be suspenseful and creepy.  And the dog lived, so hurrah for that. 

Agree w/Tywin that The Craft is a great example of the genre and one of the best ever wiccan-ish horror films.  

[Heartofice]

7 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

As part of my annual October watching of cheesy horror films, rewatched the original Amityville Horror, which despite everyone but Rod Steiger and Don Bolin being terrible still managed to be suspenseful and creepy.  And the dog lived, so hurrah for that. 

Agree w/Tywin that The Craft is a great example of the genre and one of the best ever wiccan-ish horror films.  

Yeah I really thought AH was terrifying as a kid, creeped me the f**k out, and I had no problem watching Poltergeist. 

[Mexal]

The Queen's Gambit on Netflix is fantastic. Anya Taylor-Joy kills it. Highly recommended for making Chess cool again.

[Zorral]

After getting into the 4th episode of The Barbarian, it finally started to pick up some steam.

They committed that gaffe/blunder of Romans riding horseback with stirrups.  However, the series does provide excellent views from above of a Roman army's fortified castra. The full layout is fully on view, which show why the Roman forces whether for invasion or occupation were so successful and formidable, almost impossible to surprise or successfully attack, and if attacked the very organization of the layout allowed for instant arming and falling to the formations in their cohorts and with their officers.  That has been the most impressive thing about the series so far.

 

[l2 0 5 5]

On 10/23/2020 at 5:39 PM, Annara Snow said:

It's certainly not more comedy than drama. Lots of shows have a comedic element and funny dialogue but aren't considered comedies. Comedies - even dark comedies - don't have heartbreaking character backstories or tragic outcomes / tragic deaths for sympathetic major characters. 

ETA: I just found this.  Apparently, Emmys finally wised up during season 3 that OITNB was not a comedy and Netflix'd strategy didn't make sense..

Sweet

[Heartofice]

Watching Gods of Egypt on tv, oh wow it’s bad.. like it’s ‘invite people round to laugh at it’ bad! 
 

Didn’t the director get all snotty at the negative reviews? 

[Corvinus85]

4 hours ago, Zorral said:

After getting into the 4th episode of The Barbarian, it finally started to pick up some steam.

They committed that gaffe/blunder of Romans riding horseback with stirrups.  However, the series does provide excellent views from above of a Roman army's fortified castra. The full layout is fully on view, which show why the Roman forces whether for invasion or occupation were so successful and formidable, almost impossible to surprise or successfully attack, and if attacked the very organization of the layout allowed for instant arming and falling to the formations in their cohorts and with their officers.  That has been the most impressive thing about the series so far.

 

I finished watching, and while the story was interesting, some of the directing and editing was bad, making for some eye sore scenes. In terms of historical accuracy, it seemed mostly ok, except there was one significant moment in the final episode which made me roll my eyes, and of course, the stirrups. My favorite character was Arminius's Germanic father, as he seemed to be a genuine concerned and wise ruler.

I know that some people were turned off by the premise on account of how the battle of the Teutoburg Forest was used to stoke German nationalism, but the show skirted from that. If anything, they spent plenty of time on glorifying Rome's power, and painting the Germanic tribes as serious underdogs and underachievers, who only wish to live in peace, almost to the point of historical inaccuracy.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

I finished watching, and while the story was interesting, some of the directing and editing was bad, making for some eye sore scenes. In terms of historical accuracy, it seemed mostly ok, except there was one significant moment in the final episode which made me roll my eyes, and of course, the stirrups. My favorite character was Arminius's Germanic father, as he seemed to be a genuine concerned and wise ruler.

I know that some people were turned off by the premise on account of how the battle of the Teutoburg Forest was used to stoke German nationalism, but the show skirted from that. If anything, they spent plenty of time on glorifying Rome's power, and painting the Germanic tribes as serious underdogs and underachievers, who only wish to live in peace, almost to the point of historical inaccuracy.

My favorite things about the series:

1) the big, black horse Armenius rides;  2) how clear it was made that because Armenius wasn't born a Roman, with Roman citizenship he could never be anything more in Rome than what he was, no matter who adopted him (the damned Romans never got over that thing that only Roman heritage out of a very few families, for thousands of years could qualified one as a full fledged citizen who was worthy of highest offices and honors too blood heritage worship always a disaster for the isolating groups yanno?); 3) the views of the castra; 4) that Varus and several characters spoke Latin, and with each other!  For some reason that latin in English subtitles made me grin.

But then, I haven't gotten any further yet, since the previous comment, though I'll probably watch some more in little while -- cold and windy and grey, with rain in the offing, perfect background.  

EDTA -- Finished it -- only 6 40+ episodes.  I'd have liked to have had a few scenes in Rome after the news arrives.  I'd also liked to see the manueverings that end in the Germans  --it's history, so do I need to put spoiler cuts here?

Spoiler

assassinating Arminiums in the not distant future.

Spoiler

Doubtless the unborn child would have had something to do with that?

 

[dbunting]

14 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

The Craft is as good as I remembered. It's not great by any means, but it's still a classic 90's teen horror film.

Did you see there is a new movie coming out, The Craft Legacy?

[Corvinus85]

4 hours ago, Zorral said:

My favorite things about the series:

1) the big, black horse Armenius rides;  2) how clear it was made that because Armenius wasn't born a Roman, with Roman citizenship he could never be anything more in Rome than what he was, no matter who adopted him (the damned Romans never got over that thing that only Roman heritage out of a very few families, for thousands of years could qualified one as a full fledged citizen who was worthy of highest offices and honors too blood heritage worship always a disaster for the isolating groups yanno?); 3) the views of the castra; 4) that Varus and several characters spoke Latin, and with each other!  For some reason that latin in English subtitles made me grin.

But then, I haven't gotten any further yet, since the previous comment, though I'll probably watch some more in little while -- cold and windy and grey, with rain in the offing, perfect background.  

EDTA -- Finished it -- only 6 40+ episodes.  I'd have liked to have had a few scenes in Rome after the news arrives.  I'd also liked to see the manueverings that end in the Germans  --it's history, so do I need to put spoiler cuts here?

  Hide contents

assassinating Arminiums in the not distant future.

  Hide contents

Doubtless the unborn child would have had something to do with that?

 

Now that you finished, the one moment from the battle that really annoyed me was

Spoiler

when the Romans just dropped their pila, and went to swords. Sure, they were in the forest, but even if throwing them was more challenging, they could have still served as regular spears. And we see the Germans successfully throw their spears. And then they drop them again when they are out in the more open ground. WTF. Dropping the primary weapon for no good reason at all. 

As to what could come next

Spoiler

For all that this battle was a resounding defeat, the Romans bounced back in a few years, and led by Germanicus Julius Caesar, they raided and plundered and beat the crap out of the Germanic tribes. Ultimately, the logistical nightmare and constant drain of resources is what made the Romans abandon plans to conquer Germania. The Rhine was a much better border to maintain.

 

[Nictarion]

I watched I Saw the Devil from South Korea. It’s honestly one of the best films I’ve seen out of that county. And they’ve obviously put out a lot of great ones. It’s basically a revenge story about

a secret agent who’s fiancé is murdered by a serial killer, so the agent begins capturing and torturing the killer, and then releasing him over and over again

I highly recommend it. But fair warning it’s absolutely brutal.