Watch, Watched, Watching: Three Monkeys Edition

[BigFatCoward]

4 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Rome, BrBa and Sopranos all good, but honestly just drop all of that till you've seen The Wire all the way through first.

Its.........just.........that........damn..........good.

This, also it's so much more important than the others. 

[DMC]

19 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

It really has pretty much everyone who was part of the Reagan administration and still alive in there. Pretty much everyone, even the unrepentant Reaganites like James Baker seem to believe Reagan didn't have the intellectual qualities desired of a president.

I haven't seen it, but I'd caution against drawing such broad conclusions from the documentary - any documentary for that matter.  It is not giving you the full picture on what Reagan's inner-circle felt and think about him, that much I can guarantee.  There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but obviously it's an inherently subjective opinion that is presented. 

In particular, the notion that Reagan was just aloof and "didn't understand what was going on" is often overstated in historical accounts.  It often is conflating his management style - in which he did delegate more than any president since at least Eisenhower - with personal deficiencies.  When in actuality there was, and still is, plenty of political upside to his hands off approach.  Indeed, this depiction grants him cover when it comes to his biggest crime - Iran-Contra.

[Mark Antony]

9 hours ago, williamjm said:

I watched Jackie Brown which I had last seen so long ago that I'd forgotten most of the film. It does feel as if it might be Tarantino's most straightforward film but it still manages to tell a compelling story. It had a good cast, particularly Pam Grier in the lead role although I think it's fair to say that Jackson and De Niro didn't have the chemistry that Jackson and Travolta did.

Jackie brown is one of my favorite movies. I guess it feels more straightforward cause it is the only Tarantino movie that is an adaption of a book (iirc). Elmore Leonard and QT was a match made in heaven imo. Also what a role for Deniro 

[Ghostlydragon]

Gotham season 4. The show has some really stupid moments like bringing almost anyone who dies back to life repeatedly but this could be a comic book thing so I can't argue but overall it's a good show. There have always been great villains in Batman and seeing them is brilliant.

[Werthead]

13 hours ago, Nictarion said:

I enjoyed that Battle for Japan doc. I wanted to see more episodes when it was over. 

It's made me move up Shogun 2: Total War up the to-play (well, to-replay list) list, for certain.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

It is. I watched it faithfully every week on live TV, but had to tape the final episode. It really has pretty much everyone who was part of the Reagan administration and still alive in there. Pretty much everyone, even the unrepentant Reaganites like James Baker seem to believe Reagan didn't have the intellectual qualities desired of a president. But hey, he was a great communicator and a better actor than people gave him credit for, as he was able to fool the population into thinking he had their best interest at heart, while his cronies were really shitting all over them released as they were from a POTUS who didn't understand what they were doing.

I was watching a discussion show about Trump's appearance at CPAC and the guests in the studio (so called America experts) situated the beginning of the rot in the rise of Newt Gingrich. I am however, convinced by this series that you really have to look at Reagan's rise to explain for the sad state of American democracy and discourse. He lowered the bar for what was to come.

Count me as one that points to Newt when discussing how it all went off the rails. I was going to suggest a documentary for you, but I'm drawing a blank on the name. It's interviews with a bunch of Reagan voters who realized with 20+ years of hindsight that they should have voted for Carter.

In the meantime, see if you can track down The World According to Dick Cheney. I still can't believe it was ever made. It's largely just an interview with him, and you quickly come to realize he's the real world Tywin Lannister. 

[Astromech]

15 hours ago, Zorral said:

This was your rec, I believe?  So I'm watching an episode a night.  It's informative all right.  Thank you. This is the historical "prequel," so to speak, to the 1600 Japanese world into which Richard Chamberlain, er, I mean James Clavell's John Blackthorne crashes for Shogan?  Though by the time this series begins, the Portuguese priests have been there for a while and have churches.

I tend to dislike this phony dramatized documentary-teaching format which is getting more common all the time -- Netflix particularly likes it, it seems. But this one is a superior production in the mode, as is Netflix's on the Rise of the Ottoman Empire, and the one that I think is on amazon prime that includea Roger Crowley as expert commentator on the fall of Constantinople.  As well they should have.; in English, Crowley OWNS that historical material.

But Netflix's Roman Empire series on Commodius is so annoying with the endless repetition of the same scenes, I just couldn't get through it.

Yeah, it is informative, but also leaves me wanting more. 6 episodes isn't enough,

I agree with you on the current trend of docuseries that Netflix is churning out. Some are good like the Rise of the Ottoman Empire. The Roman Empire ones are hit or mess. Netflix has anew one upcoming mid-March on the Golden Age of Piracy entitled The Lost Pirate Kingdom. Looks a bit cheesy from the trailer. It will probably lead me to doing a rewatch of Black Sails, which is always a good thing.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81035118

[Heartofice]

Yeah count me in as one of those people who can’t get on board with Docu Drama, especially historical. I’ve seen far too many Roman variants over the years featuring the poorest quality acting and lowest budgets, that it has put me off for life.

Having said that, it’s also pretty rare to find a historical Roman fictional movie that doesn’t also feature terrible acting and tiny budgets. 

[Zorral]

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

This, also it's so much more important than the others. 

Not more important than Treme though.  It explores the same insidious toxic corruption and decay that has destroyed all of our US institutions, but does it through the lens of culture this time, not cops and drug dealers.  In that sense, as well as others, it is even more original than The Wire.

When the cultural underpinnings of a community are obliterated, so is the community.  Without communities entire nations are obliterated.

~~~~~~~~~~

Watched the first episode of Warrior (HBO) last night.  1870’s San Francisco, conflicting tongs. Off-the-boat martial artist as protagonist, of course, searching for his sister, of course. English grandfather, which is why he looks more 'white' than Asian, and speaks the King's English, Of course. One wonders why they decided to do this thing with the actor's eyes, so that much of the time he looks as though he's had too much Benadryl -- or maybe, not enough?

In the mix: Irish, Post Civil War conflicts among ex-cons and union soldiers, Irish labor vs Asian labor. And prostitutes, o so many prostitutes all naked, full frontal female naked, or next thing to it.  Thought we'd gotten beyond that by now.

Old fashioned then. Looks a lot like the West Coast version of Copper, and not only because the 'good' white cop is played by Tom Weston-Jones, who played the protagonist in that series. He's an ex-con, of course. Named Richard Lee, of course.  Thought we'd gotten over the redemptive, non-racist southerner as hero too, but obviously not. 

Shot very dark, murky and muddy, with lots of blue screen grey and drear, just like Copper, which was so drear and down, one could hardly bear to watch it.

There are so many characters introduced in the first episode, one doesn’t know who is who and what, hardly.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Count me as one that points to Newt when discussing how it all went off the rails. I was going to suggest a documentary for you, but I'm drawing a blank on the name. It's interviews with a bunch of Reagan voters who realized with 20+ years of hindsight that they should have voted for Carter.

Rick Perlstein is THE historian of the trajectory and process, which begins with Nixon. Gingrich happily leaped upon the train but he didn't sell the first bonds for laying the track. Perlstein's Reaganland (2020) lays it all out there in meticulous detail.  Warning: it's deeply depressing reading.

[polishgenius]

12 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Rome, BrBa and Sopranos all good, but honestly just drop all of that till you've seen The Wire all the way through first.

Its.........just.........that........damn..........good.

 

Deadwood is better than The WIre tbqh


But it's not more groundbreaking.

[Mark Antony]

I prefer Sopranos and Deadwood for sure but I mean The Wire is still a classic. HBO was untouchable early 2000s

[Ran]

@Zorral

Warrior is based on a TV show concept and treatment created by Bruce Lee in 1971, for a show he would star in. I think some of the “of course” elements are due to that. (His widow claims that while his pitch was rejected, in part because of his ethnicity and in part because of his accent, the serial numbers were filed off and turned into Kung Fu with David Carridine, with Lee receiving no credit. Warner Bros. claimed it was coincidence.)

[Zorral]

4 minutes ago, Ran said:

Warrior is based on a TV show concept and treatment created by Bruce Lee in 1971, for a show he would star in. I think some of the “of course” elements are due to that. (His widow claims that while his pitch was rejected, the serial numbers were filed off and turned into Kung Fu with David Carridine, with Lee receiving no credit. Warner Bros. claimed it was coincidence.)

Thanks, but I know that. That is no excuse for those of course elements. Because how long has it been since 1971, and a whole lot has changed globally since then -- which is why a significant percentage of white people have gone cray-cray.  Because we can only have heroes who aren't white if we show them in degrading ways, and the only way to avoid the degradation is to make them at least partly white.  The rest of us have learned better since 1971.  Asians in particular know better.  It seems more like non-thinking in the writing, just elastic banding back to that.  Not to mention how women are depicted, whether white, or non-white.

 

[Ran]

Eh, I suspect it was just an effort to carry through what Lee envisioned. His daughter is an executive producer and closely involved, and a lot was made of it being Bruce Lee's story.

It definitely seems a bit out of place in some aspects, but then that's why it was a Cinemax show with the other B-movie action style fare they specialized in for awhile (Strike Back, Banshee).

[Zorral]

17 minutes ago, Ran said:

Eh, I suspect it was just an effort to carry through what Lee envisioned. His daughter is an executive producer and closely involved, and a lot was made of it being Bruce Lee's story.

It definitely seems a bit out of place in some aspects, but then that's why it was a Cinemax show with the other B-movie action style fare they specialized in for awhile (Strike Back, Banshee).

No, it wasn't. This NY Times article gives all the background as to how it got made --

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/arts/television/warrior-review.html

There is NO excuse for the of courses.

P.S. Banshee is dreadfully brutal and muddy too -- I couldn't even get through the first episode.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

44 minutes ago, Ran said:

@Zorral

Warrior is based on a TV show concept and treatment created by Bruce Lee in 1971, for a show he would star in. I think some of the “of course” elements are due to that. (His widow claims that while his pitch was rejected, in part because of his ethnicity and in part because of his accent, the serial numbers were filed off and turned into Kung Fu with David Carridine, with Lee receiving no credit. Warner Bros. claimed it was coincidence.)

I think everyone knows they screwed him. Carridine was alright in the role, but Lee would have become a massive star from it IMO. 

Lee, to this day, is still probably the most important Asian-American actor ever. His works are crucial in breaking a lot of awful stereotypes about Asians. 

[Isis]

23 hours ago, williamjm said:

Blackadder : Back and Forth was commissioned to be shown initially inside the Millennium Dome with TV broadcast at a later date.

So that's a different show? Blackadder's Christmas Carol was pre-millenial?

[Luzifer's right hand]

I'm binge watching Buffy and I think I got an overdose of shirtless Angel after the first few episodes of season 3...

[Ran]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

No, it wasn't. This NY Times article gives all the background as to how it got made --

I find nothing in disagreement in the NYT piece with what I said. The details of Lee's treatment vs. what the show does are not discussed. The basic outlines of what we do know of Lee's treatment appear in the show, however. Obviously, the punched up sex and nudity would not have been in Lee's pitch for a network show in the 70s, but the primary characters seem to be drawn from the treatment. Particularly the "off-the-boat" martial artist protagonist searching for his sister.