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Watch, Watched, Watching: My Queen's Gambit brings all the boys to the yard


Veltigar

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6 hours ago, Zorral said:

Good grief, the ignorance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsène_Lupin

Netflix France's Lupin is derivative of a 1920's French series of stories and novellas, very popular in France, from which has been derived the whole slough of gentlemen thieves and masters of disguises.  So all of these are derivative from this. The very concept of Gentleman (chevalier / knight) vs barbarian -- so French -- is embedded in the series as it is in the (French) fictions of 1920's.

It's also very popular with the US English speaking audience. Ha!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/arts/television/lupin-netflix-omar-sy.html

One of the most popular ever of the Netflix offerings.

It's also deliberately meta as part of its contemporary location.  Being French the stories and novels are so much of the content -- and again characters talking books -- so ... French, and charmingly so, also so French.  Alas we only got 5 episodes. But there are more coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Also really liking A Suitable Boy, which novel I loved.  But then I've only gotten one episode through the production.  But all is gorgeous and going well, if seemingly several trajectories toward tragedy being set up.  I.e. good writing.

Lol, not quite sure what point you are trying to make, but while the show clearly tries to emulate the Lupin stories, in reality it seems far more influenced by any number of recent hollywood heist offerings. This is to the point of literally copying whole scenes and concepts.

It means the show is often quite predictable, not really adding any level of visual or directorial flair to make itself stand out. It requires you to try to turn your brain off the entire time to excuse the numerous plot holes. Nobody on the show has thought to consult cameras or use modern police methods. 
 

I think like a lot of European shows this gets a pass because it’s French and that disguises many of its flaws, were this show American it wouldn’t be noticed on cable tv. I tend to think people give these shows and movies more reverence due to their European allure, when in reality they are just low budget rip offs of known Hollywood products. 
 

I always remember coming out of the cinema having watched the highly rated ‘girl with the dragon tattoo’, the original, wondering if I hadn’t missed something because actually it felt like a television movie that didn’t deserve a second look.

Other shows like Money Heist fall into this bracket for me, where it’s just copying Hollywood tropes word for word, and not really doing anything to create something new or interesting.

On the other hand, some of my favourite shows are European, Dark and Les Revenants are fantastic ( though am I also giving them too much credit because they are European?! I don’t know)

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Been watching The Secret of Kells again, the beautiful 2009 animation from Cartoon Saloon. On the one hand, it's a magical adventure story taking inspiration from history. At the same time, it has a serious message about the power of art, and its ability to endure, and to provide hope and comfort even when the world doesn't seem full of reasons for either.  All that with a design that's a love song to the glories of insular illumination. Bonus points for references to Pangur Bán. 

The film is currently available for free on S4C for UK people, though it's in a Welsh dub (the original was in Irish). English subtitles available. 

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I’m watching Bridgerton and, in shame, I admit I love it. It’s such a simple, sweet, delightful fable. It’s not complicated, it doesn’t try to be overly groundbreaking and the 21st century trends aren’t shoved too much in your face. I like a delightful, entertaining, lighthearted, cliche story of the most simplistic things a story can be about. 

 

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10 hours ago, Zorral said:

Netflix France's Lupin is derivative of a 1920's French series of stories and novellas, very popular in France, from which has been derived the whole slough of gentlemen thieves and masters of disguises.  So all of these are derivative from this. The very concept of Gentleman (chevalier / knight) vs barbarian -- so French -- is embedded in the series as it is in the (French) fictions of 1920's.

I had been wondering how faithful it was to the spirit of the original stories, even if it's clearly not a direct adaptation. I haven't read any of them and the only previous semi-adaptation I've seen is Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro which is itself some steps removed from the original being based on a manga centred around a supposed grandson of the original Lupin.

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Quite a bit faithful, including the titles from the stories for episodes. Updated to current conditions of course.  I was disappointed that we got a 5 episode season, and ended on a cliff hanger though.

Lupin is quite fine, though I do have a sort of  complaint. Like many of the consciously 'elegant' series these days, this series plays silly buggers with the timeline. I think their objective was for narrative clarity and establishment of characters and relationships, plus contributing suspense. Gotta say how admirably, efficient and succinctly it was done, giving the audience the information of how Lupin and his friend with the jewelry-antique shop, who is a master forger, etc., hooked up.

The latter, might contribute to depth of thematic content -- nested narrative of father-son of past, into that of father (protagonist)-son of the present, both sets being taught how to be successful from the fictional Lupin, and in the current case, the current father revenging his own father and creating justice where it previously hadn't existed. It is here that the thematic concept of Lupin-dead father-protagonist father as 'gentlemen / knights vs the barbarians is the strongest.

Then there is the nested theme -- can hardly get more contemporary than this -- of how pop culture pervades the daily life of 'ordinary' people.  For the good, the fictional 1920's Lupin, has Diope's father and he adhere to a concept of gentleman in behavior -- courteous always to women, kind to the less fortunate, and righting injustice.  For the not so good, perhaps, when identification with a fictional figure so permeates an 'ordinary', non super, but real human being, the human being can get to a point where s/he can no longer tell the difference between that fiction and her/himself.  There haven't been enough episodes to see where this will go -- the direction of Amazon Original's The Boys, or just drop as too distracting, but not a the good tv way, for the audience's eye.

In the end, this is a television series,. So, much like Killing Eve, neither the philosophy nor the capacity of the showrunners has the strength necessary to explore such matters in depth. Though, like Killing Eve, Lupin's glossy surface charm, is a positive as the protagonist is modeled on a pop culture, bigger than life fugure, (like a superhero), master of disguise and illusion -- fool the audience is the mantra, which means first, fooling the the police, and whomever else, as with Louvre.

We are given much to make Assane Diop  sympathetic and plenty to show those he’s going after are cruel, evil garbage. Mr Big who set off the trajectory of vengeance sold arms to terrorists to blow up France’s embassy – and he’s French.  Can’t get more scumbag than that, and ya these are the people running the world everywhere.

Lupin somewhat reminds me of Orphan Black, in the sense the actor puts on a variety of characters.  But Maslany’s job was much more difficult and thus her achievement is more so, as she wasn’t disguising a protagonist, she was being different people. But this actor is very good too, and compels our eyes to watch him as much as Maslany does.

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I didn't have much time for entertainment this week, but yesterday I did manage to see the first two episodes of WandaVision and rewatch the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The day before that I caught Clint Eastwood's underrated Escape from Alcatraz film.

WandaVision was okay enough. I'm not exactly blown away by it, but the show is weird enough to get me on board. It's probably a stupid heuristic of me to use, but for Disney to greenlight something as weird as this sitcom spoof there has got to be a pretty great twist or reveal later in the season. The humor was pretty cringe-inducing, but the actors sell it pretty well.

Escape from Alcatraz then, is a film I first saw many years ago. It's not particularly popular, don't see it a lot on TV or in best-off lists of Clint's greatest characters, but there really is a lot to be said for this movie. Admittedly, I do like the genre it belongs to (prison movies), but I really like how dry and matter-of-fact this movie is. It's basically an understatement from beginning to end, selling you the sheer impossibility of escaping from Alcatraz through sheer, quiet determination. I have a lot of respect for it. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was next on my watch list. It's a movie I first saw when it came out and that I must have seen at least two dozen times since. Both it and the sequels used to be such staples of TV around here, you could not escape it for long. The strange thing is that that never bothered me much. It's been a while since I last saw it, as I don't watch much linear TV anymore, but yesterday I just had the urge to pop my old DVD copy of it in my long-disuses player and watch it.

Safe to say, I did not regret that decision one bit. I was struck with just how perfect an adventure film this is and indeed, just how great a film it is in general. If I had to make a list with best films of the nillies, this would definitely be on there.  

I have probably typed adulatory reviews of this film in the past, so I will be brief here. The acting is great, world building, atmosphere, directing are all exciting and engrossing. Even the CGI isn't that bad for an early 2000s film of this kind. One of my favorite things about it however, is the writing.

Of course, it is difficult to see that aspect of the film in isolation (e.g. A lot of this praise will be about Captain Jack Sparrow, who is a superbly written character, but you need a deranged actor like Johnny Depp to sell those lines), but I'm struck just how brilliantly the film introduces its characters, sets up its characters and manages to drive the plot forward. I can remember the first time I saw it, thinking Jack was just some trickster/buffoon character, but then slowly revealing that he is so much more than that. It's not something I'd usually say, but Captain Jack Sparrow is the golden standard in character building for an adventure movie like this.

Unfortunately, that also shows the challenges this franchise will face in the future. Its two direct sequels were surprisingly decent, although they too fell victim to the common sequel mistake of making everything much, much bigger (but alas not better). The fourth was an atrocity and I haven't dared to check out the fifth one after dismal reviews. The misuse of the character of Jack Sparrow was at the heart of those movies failure (He's really not protagonist material like Indiana Jones, you need to have some straight-laced boring characters for him to play against) and I don't have high hopes for the reboot. I really hope the writers and Margot Robbie can capture lightning in a bottle again and turn their female equivalent of Jack Sparrow into a success, but I really rather doubt it.

On 1/13/2021 at 5:38 AM, polishgenius said:


I was gonna do that but I read a quick 'what differs' account and it's put me off coz apparently the book is a much colder and less feelgood enterprise than the show with the characters more unlikeable and while there's nothing wrong with that and it might ultimately be better, with what the show ended up being I would definitely be disappointed if I ended up not liking Beth.

Anyway on the discussion I do think its storyline of substance abuse lagged some, in large part because there just wasn't the time to do it properly (the show's rapid-fire timejumps were probably its main flaw overall, I said back when I watched it I had issues with how segments that could probably stand alone in shorter episodes were instead crammed together into 40-minute episodes with other bits that didn't need to be so compressed). But also her big spiral before Jolene shows up was depicted badly, I found it slapstick hilarious and I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be.

On your spoiler question:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Yeah, Townes is implied to be gay. They talk around it, but when you combine with 'if only they knew' with the half-naked bloke showing up in his room when she thinks he's coming on to her in their earlier meeting, it's fairly definite I feel.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad that others seem to support that reading, because it wasn't that clear to me :)

Will see with the book how it ends up. It's not very high on my to-do list right now, but I'm still very curious to see how the book/TV-show differ.

I thought the pace of the show was one of its main strengths and that it did a great job with the time it had available. Sure, if they had more time they could have done more to establish her addiction, but then you would have lost the propulsive narrative drive which I loved so much about it!

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18 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

 

I thought the pace of the show was one of its main strengths and that it did a great job with the time it had available. Sure, if they had more time they could have done more to establish her addiction,


I don't think it needed much more time even, I just think the time it did have could have been managed differently. Like when you know you're writing for Netflix and don't have to hit uniform timeslots, you can split certain things up more and create the passing of time that way. The show did this some but I think it could have committed more.

It wasn't a major blow or anything, but it was something I thought consistently while watching.

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I think my problem with the drug abuse angle was that mostly it felt like it was something layered on rather than something they explored or delved into with her character.

It didn’t feel hugely subtle I think is the problem, in the beginning drugs were like a super power, then she hit a point where she over did it and then she got over it. All a little too tidy for my liking.

I’m always sensitive to things that are written in a very ‘Hollywood’ way that doesn’t seem to reflect reality very well, and this was one of those occasions.

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4 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I think my problem with the drug abuse angle was that mostly it felt like it was something layered on rather than something they explored or delved into with her character.

It didn’t feel hugely subtle I think is the problem, in the beginning drugs were like a super power, then she hit a point where she over did it and then she got over it. All a little too tidy for my liking.

I’m always sensitive to things that are written in a very ‘Hollywood’ way that doesn’t seem to reflect reality very well, and this was one of those occasions.

I kind of liked that they left things almost neutral, she functioned at a high level despite having a drug dependency [as many people do in RL], she eventually somewhat succumbed to her addiction [as many do in RL], the only Hollywood angle is that it was so easy for her just get over it, which also does sometimes happen in RL but they made it pretty easy, all she needs is a couple of pep talks, LOL.  One of the things I enjoyed about the show was that it kept moral judgments to a minimum and never felt the need to spell out WhatIsRight for the audience. 

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Finished Bridgerton last night. While it got slightly over the top here and there, I still stand by my opinion that it’s the perfect light-hearted, entertaining weekend binge watch. 

There is no historical accuracy whatsoever - this is either something you rise above in the first episode or you just abandon the series. That said, the fictional period the story is set in only adds to its charm and provides better ground for mandatory 21st century messages that are sprinkled all over the series. These are treated with moderation and feel only slightly out of context thanks to the fictional nature of the period. 

It is, unsurprisingly, a very visual production. Fortunate the excess and maximalism do not manifest in 99% cgi, rather a most ridiculous costume design. Again, something to either rise above or treat as a deal breaker. I did actually enjoy the male costumes although I’m sure they are just as ridiculous and fake historical to an expert eye as female ones are to any eye. 

The character are schematic but not one dimensional for the most part, but easily likable. The acting is quite hit or miss, some delivery a lovely performance, others feel caricature-like. The story is surprisingly cohesive and well written for the most part - in a very classic way. It’s most definitely not a post-modern plot that’ll blow your mind, neither is it groundbreakingly flawless. It is a well told cliche, to put it simple. And I love and value a well told cliche. 

I did hear that the series was labeled as soft porn by many, there is one episode in particular that essentially is so and it is quite clear that for the last three episodes Netflix did make the decision to prioritize sexual content over storytelling. This shows in the plot too. There was a rather solid setup for resolving the inner conflict of a main character and for preparing a plot for a potential second season. This plot line was entirely abandoned to make room for five extra sex scenes. They might bring it back in an upcoming season, though they still lost out on the cohesion of wrapping up the story of season 1. This was one of the main things that bothered me. Overall however, I didn’t get the impression that there was more unnecessary sexual content than in any other hbo or Netflix series, I didn’t find the amount vexing and wouldn’t label the entire series soft porn, just that one episode. 

There were a few other instances in which certain subplots stumbled around due to lack of time, detailing or setup, and the second half was definitely rushed, but in general, the story had a pretty natural flow and felt at least 75% intentional, which cannot be said for many series I’ve watched recently. Another flaw is that they sometimes went over the top with exaggeration for dramatic effect. This mainly affected the communication between the main characters and the female protagonist’s knowledge of common biology. Beyond these I had no issues, minor or major and just enjoyed the ride. 

What else can be said? It’s quite similar to Reign, if anybody is looking for a comparison. I enjoyed Reign as well, though it went significantly downhill in later seasons. Don’t expect anything. The characters are quite likable, my non-native ears enjoyed the dialogues very much and found them eloquent enough (again, by my foreigner standards, I’m sure British intellectuals would argue with this statement), it was a joy to hear Julie Andrews’ voice who narrates the story. I liked it, I will watch it again, I wouldn’t rate it below 7. 
 

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Started watching "Part 3" (apparently technically Season 2, Part 1) of Disenchantment, Matt Groening's Netflix show. Part 1 was poor, but improved markedly in the last couple of episodes. Part 2 was surprisingly solid throughout, mainly by leaning into the more serialised ongoing and dramatic events, and working more as a straight show with the occasional comic aside rather than trying to be The Simpsons or Futurama but in Middle-earth.

Part 3, bizarrely, has backslid quite badly, and so far (four episodes in) it feels even weaker than Part 1. Making Zog go insane with a very unfunny "mad tic" which even John DiMaggio can't do anything with is a weird choice, and Elfo's obsession with Bean stopped being funny halfway through Episode 1, let alone twenty instalments later. I thought they'd moved him on from that in Part 2 so it's weird he's back on it again. They also seem to have dropped the "drama with funny asides" format in favour of trying to be an actual sitcom again, but there's like one genuine laugh for every ten gags they launch.

This kind of high variability in the quality of the writing is quite odd to see these days. 

On 1/16/2021 at 9:55 AM, dog-days said:

Been watching The Secret of Kells again, the beautiful 2009 animation from Cartoon Saloon. On the one hand, it's a magical adventure story taking inspiration from history. At the same time, it has a serious message about the power of art, and its ability to endure, and to provide hope and comfort even when the world doesn't seem full of reasons for either.  All that with a design that's a love song to the glories of insular illumination. Bonus points for references to Pangur Bán. 

The film is currently available for free on S4C for UK people, though it's in a Welsh dub (the original was in Irish). English subtitles available. 

I picked up the same team's more recent film set in Afghanistan under the Taliban, The Breadwinner, which is absolutely outstanding. A really powerful work.

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Finally finished Legion.  Watched season 1 when it aired, but never got around to season 2.  Started 2 probably 2-4 months ago.  The weirdness never grabbed me, but I was able to power through season 3 over the past two days.  So, so weird, but it did end alright.  The best part about the entire show was the rap battle between Jermaine Clement and Jason Mantzoukas.  

Finished rewatching Boardwalk Empire on Friday night.  Not sure which was my favorite season, but it was probably 1 or 2 - 5 was definitely my least favorite.

Been watching Agents of SHIELD as my workout show since mid-December.  When it first aired I watched the first 3 episodes and bailed.  That first half of the season was certainly not great, but really did improve.  It's now something I want to binge as quickly as possible, but I'm (mostly) holding off on that.  Nearing the end of season 3.  It is very network-y though. 

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Finished off Alien Worlds (after getting a nagging email from Netflix to say we hadn't completed it). The last episode gave me a huge craving to read Children of Time and Children of Ruin again. I even said right at the start when they were talking about what is required for a civilisation, "LIKE SQUID!" It's a nice little series, worth it for the adorable furries of the first episode alone.

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I watched Trainspotting for the first time and as I was doing rewatches, I decided to go for Idiocracy as well. Can't really add much to the discussion of both. Idiocracy has become a documentary which is very distressing and Trainspotting is a stone cold classic. Probably one of the roughest films I have ever seen. I might even give the sequel a try next week.

22 hours ago, Cas Stark said:

I kind of liked that they left things almost neutral, she functioned at a high level despite having a drug dependency [as many people do in RL], she eventually somewhat succumbed to her addiction [as many do in RL], the only Hollywood angle is that it was so easy for her just get over it, which also does sometimes happen in RL but they made it pretty easy, all she needs is a couple of pep talks, LOL.  One of the things I enjoyed about the show was that it kept moral judgments to a minimum and never felt the need to spell out WhatIsRight for the audience. 

I agree with your take on it mostly, although I do feel like it's not something she easily got over. What the series showcases is that she turned to drugs at moments that she needed emotional support. That was her gateway, so as soon as she had a support network around it, she was able to trust her genius to do its work instead of reverting to pills as a gatekeeper. I kind of liked that approach.

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Watched a sci-fi series called Salvation.

There's 2 seasons with the ongoing plot of a giant asteroid on collision course with earth.

They really throw everything and the kitchen sink into the storylines from episode to episode. They featured a survivors ark/escape spaceship a railgun a gravity tractor, nukes, an insurection, assassinations a endtimes cult and more lol.

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Finished watching Lupin yesterday. Very well made and entertaining.

Spoiler

It was funny though because we'd watched 3 episodes and I remarked to my partner that I appreciated that it was a entertaining show where a charming criminal gets away with crime and it's not too dark. Cue to him getting someone murdered and his kid getting kidnapped! I didn't expect it to stay completely low stakes and it's far from the Scandinavian grimdark detective genre, but it was a darker tone to finish the first 5 episodes to be sure.

 

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2 hours ago, Vaughn said:

Finished watching Lupin yesterday. Very well made and entertaining.

  Hide contents

It was funny though because we'd watched 3 episodes and I remarked to my partner that I appreciated that it was a entertaining show where a charming criminal gets away with crime and it's not too dark. Cue to him getting someone murdered and his kid getting kidnapped! I didn't expect it to stay completely low stakes and it's far from the Scandinavian grimdark detective genre, but it was a darker tone to finish the first 5 episodes to be sure.

 

I thought of that too.  But with a Big Bad 

Spoiler

someone who sells weapons to others who are attacking his own country, and using his wife and children as he does, and all the other crimes the big bad commits -- including framing an innocent man -- and all for the sake money, the ultimate in greed, well we probably had to expect something darker? At least for a while? I guess?

 

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