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Watch, Watched, Watching: The cancellations continue


Red Tiger

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Watched first ep of Truth Seekers with Nick Frost on Amazon Prime. I remember seeing the trailer, being disappointed by it and thinking I wouldn't bother. Actually I really liked that first episode. Nick Frost is always brilliant but I was a bit worried the humour would be too broad and in your face silly, trailer gave that impression. Its actually not, its well written and jokes are funny but not done for easy laughs.

I LOL'd at the "Is it alive?" line. 

It could be a bit of a classic.. fingers crossed.

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Oh man I'm two minutes into Terminator: Dark Fate and it's already the worst kind of great. 

 

What a great opening. Loses a lot of points because Sarah Conner's voice over was TERRIBLE. "A Machine took [my son] from me. and I am terminated." Like how did nobody stop her from even recording that. But I love that the T-800 Kills John (Furlong!) and then just wanders off. 

I kinda wish they made a movie about that T-800 chilling from 1998 on.  Something like a modern Forrest Gump. with killer robots.

Edit: now I'm trying to think if I've ever seen Gabriel Luna in anything where he didn't enter through a portal....

Anyway I'll finish it but based on the terrible reviews it got I suspect this movie already peaked. 

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About halfway through Luca Guadagnino's We Are Who We Are, an HBO miniseries based on an original idea from one of the writing partners. Learned about it a year or two ago from my father because a friend of his from his time in the military had helped with location scouting. It's a story about American teens on a US army post in Italy. Originally, it was going to be filmed on location at Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy -- that's where my father knew his friend from, and where I lived for three years as a small child -- but the Army backed out and so they basically built a big set in place near Venice. My memories of Caserma Ederle are very few -- I think I lived there from the age of 2-5, but I did first go to preschool at an Italian parochial school and remember Vicenza a little bit. (Alas, what Italian I soaked up as a young child vanished after a couple of years back in the US).

I love Guadagnino's work, generally -- Call Me By Your Name, his remake of SuspiriaA Bigger Splash -- and some of the features I enjoy are definitely here: an almost voyeuristic approach to depicting characters in their lives, beautiful sun-washed scenes artfully composed, a kind of dreamy atmosphere supported by terrific music choices. There's something about it, however, that feels ... off. The relationship between the lead character and his mother (played by Chloë Sevigny), who is the new commander of the base, is just sort of unreal and bonkers. Like, are there screwed up families in the military? Sure! But in the military world, especially at that high level of command, you're being judged quite a lot. Fraser (the son, who is insufferable but, IMO, is very well-acted and coming across as intended by the writers) would be in some kind of therapy, no question about it, because his antics -- particularly the fact that he seems to be a borderline alcoholic at ripe old age of 14(!) -- would probably lead to his mother's career stalling and ultimately ending. 

There's a lot of interesting stuff packed into it -- his mother's marriage to another female officer (played by Alice Braga), his neighbor Caitlin's struggle with her gender identity, the fact that Caitlin's father has gone full MAGA (the TV show is set during the 2016 election) while his wife is a Nigerian immigrant and his son is wrestling with his belief in god and his interest in his mother's abandoned Islamic faith [there's also an added detail, that he appears to be smuggling gasoline or diesel from the base to line his pockets with some extra cash, that does not make much sense for a Lieutenant Colonel....] -- but it just doesn't feel organic. The fact that all three writers are Italians (from a concept one of them pitched to Guadagnino) makes me wonder if they're just not connected enough to the world they're trying to depict, rendering most of it into caricature and obvious thematic messaging. Guadagnino's previous English-language films, mentioned above, were all adapting writing by others, and were written by American David Kajganich or James Ivory, among others.

Do I recommend this? Hmm... if you like Guadagnino, yes, sure. If you enjoyed HBO's Euphoria, this hits some similar notes, so sure. Otherwise, I think it's probably a pass for most people.

 

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I started The Queen's Gambit knowing literally nothing except "chess" and "Anna Taylor-Joy". Two eps in and really enjoying it. Always fun to dive into a show knowing next to nothing, not even a trailer, and get pulled in.

Happy to have convinced one friend out of my small FB population to try Ted Lasso and she loved it. Everyone else said something along the lines of "Apple has a thing too?" Too bad, it's just terrific.

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On 10/30/2020 at 2:05 PM, Mark Antony said:

Finished The Great and I just want more right now. What a great ride season one was

Huzzah! :cheers: 

 

I’ve started watching Roadkill purely because I adore Hugh Laurie. It’s been... interesting. Not quite hooked, but still too intrigued to give up. For some reason I have high expectations and they haven’t yet been met. 
Okay, I watched the first two episodes and I don’t like it. I will continue to watch to see if it picks up but so far it’s just all sorts of issues. 

 

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Raced through Truth Seekers, have to say I really enjoyed it even though it felt a little less interesting than I hoped it would be. It has a Doctor Who vibe which I liked, but essentially the overall plot running through the show wasn't all that interesting. Definitely would work better as 'ghost of the week' show rather than one season long story. I think that would allow for more comedy and more interesting stories. It had elements of trying to be episodic but it seemed to think it needed to have a bigger arc to hang things off, and I don't think it did.

But overall its a lot of fun, Nick Frost is a national treasure, I thought Samson Kayo was actually brilliant as Elton, he has a very naturalistic style that really works in the role, I'd love to see him him in more stuff. 

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I've watched the first three or four episodes of Truth Seekers. So far it's been different to what I expected. More drama than comedy - though when it does go for comedy, it's very funny. There were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, which for me is rare. A lot of it felt Rivers of London-esque. Agreed about Samson Kayo - he was a great piece of casting. Susie Wokoma was good too; enjoyed the character's OTT-ness masking genuine pathos. 

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4 minutes ago, dog-days said:

I've watched the first three or four episodes of Truth Seekers. So far it's been different to what I expected. More drama than comedy - though when it does go for comedy, it's very funny. There were a couple of laugh-out-loud moments, which for me is rare. A lot of it felt Rivers of London-esque. Agreed about Samson Kayo - he was a great piece of casting. Susie Wokoma was good too; enjoyed the character's OTT-ness masking genuine pathos. 

One thing that occurred to me a number of times when watching it was that in another set of hands with different actors I could absolutely hate this show. It could easily veer into over sentimentality or trying to be funny when it isn't. It takes real skill to keep that fine balance and pretty everyone on the show manages it. Having it populated by class comedy giants like Pegg, Eldon and Barratt really helps as well.

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1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

One thing that occurred to me a number of times when watching it was that in another set of hands with different actors I could absolutely hate this show. It could easily veer into over sentimentality or trying to be funny when it isn't. It takes real skill to keep that fine balance and pretty everyone on the show manages it. Having it populated by class comedy giants like Pegg, Eldon and Barratt really helps as well.

So better than 'Ghosted' was a few years back? Craig Robinson and Adam Scott should have been a great pairing and yet.

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I don't know if this is the proper place but NBC has cancelled Spitting Image after deciding it was too much to handle for American audiences. I don't know if seeing Putin whack Trump and Johnson in the balls with a piece of fried chicken or the part where Trump's asshole slithers out to send tweets while Trump sleeps was too much. I found it delightfully savage, but then I am Canadian. 

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