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Watch, Watched, Watching: Three Monkeys Edition


Ran

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41 minutes ago, Isis said:

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

Yes. Reading the original post again Derfel is referring to the Millennium special in the first paragraph and is then talking about Christmas Carol in the second, which is much older and much better.

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3 hours ago, Zorral said:

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.

You do realize he actually just looks like this right? Seriously, look at any picture of him. 

For me, it was a super entertaining show with great choreography and some compelling characters. There are some issues (wish they focused entirely on the tongs and not the Irish even though the lead guy does become more well rounded by end of season 2) but still a good show and one I'd recommend to anyone interested in a pulpy martial arts show.

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11 minutes ago, briantw said:

Maybe you just hate shows that are dumb fun?

I'd slot Peaky Blinders and Billions in the same category, myself, so I don't think that's quite it. 

1 minute ago, Mexal said:

For me, it was a super entertaining show with great choreography and some compelling characters. There are some issues (wish they focused entirely on the tongs and not the Irish even though the lead guy does become more well rounded by end of season 2) but still a good show and one I'd recommend to anyone interested in a pulpy martial arts show.

I did watch the first season and enjoyed it well enough, but for some reason couldn't move myself to watch the 2nd season. I should probably do that at some point.

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23 minutes ago, Ran said:

I'd slot Peaky Blinders and Billions in the same category, myself, so I don't think that's quite it. 

I think both of those shows scratch a different itch than shows like Banshee do.  Banshee is bad, but in a dumb, hilariously awesome way.  It's pulp entertainment that isn't supposed to be good in the way that a show like The Wire is.  It's sex and violence and absurdly over the top story lines.  Peaky Blinders and Billions have some of that, but I think they both, and Billions especially, take themselves more seriously than Banshee does.

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45 minutes ago, briantw said:

I think both of those shows scratch a different itch than shows like Banshee do.  Banshee is bad, but in a dumb, hilariously awesome way.  It's pulp entertainment that isn't supposed to be good in the way that a show like The Wire is.  It's sex and violence and absurdly over the top story lines.  Peaky Blinders and Billions have some of that, but I think they both, and Billions especially, take themselves more seriously than Banshee does.

Ah, yeah, that could be it. Banshee is, from what I gather, deliberately a trashy sort of show. Sort of how True Blood was, I guess? 

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21 minutes ago, Ran said:

Ah, yeah, that could be it. Banshee is, from what I gather, deliberately a trashy sort of show. Sort of how True Blood was, I guess? 

Yeah, and Spartacus, another gloriously trashy show.

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3 hours ago, Isis said:

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

Sorry yes. I was first referring to the poor Millennijm special Back and Forth.

The grand admiral Blackadder scene was in A Christmas Carol, an 80’s special which is excellent (a reverse Christmas Carol). The ghost of Christmas future shows Black adder what happens to his descendents if he’s good or bad.

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Chalk me down as one who has yet to watch The Shield or Deadwood. Covid-19 almost got me to tick those off. Alas I'll save them for when the next pandemic hits.

 

Watched Boss Level. Quite enjoyed it. Always liked Frank Grillo and due to the nature of the story (its one of the time loop genre) he's front and centre for most of it. It's dumb fun with excellent production quality and well choreographed action.

Thinking of time loop movies, Groundhog Day must still rein as the best of them. I would follow that with Edge of Tomorrow. The third best for me doesn't market itself as a time loop movie so I won't mention it's title as it was a pleasant reveal when I watched it the first time. I'll only say it stars Andy Samburg and hope you forget that when you come across the movie. Boss Level sits comfortably after those. Lastly, I haven't seen it but I've heard Happy Death Day is worth watching as a comedy-horror.

Most of these time loop stories have one, two or three people reliving the same day. I'm waiting to see if anyone tackles the idea of an entire world reliving the same day. That could be insane with people coming to the realization and then nobody bothering to do any work and society collapses... initially. Authorities will have to get people to repeat their day as if it was normal (they could schedule 'days' off) whilst a solution out of the loop is sought. Then when a solution is found they would need as many people onboard for that last reset day. It could still be a mess the day after. 

 

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I watched Lars and the Real Girl today. On paper, it could've easily been a raunchy comedy since it involves a sex doll, but it was actually a really good film. I especially enjoyed the character arc of Lars, who I can somewhat relate to, since I spent time living a secluded life in a rural town in Connecticut.

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9 hours ago, ithanos said:

Chalk me down as one who has yet to watch The Shield or Deadwood. Covid-19 almost got me to tick those off. Alas I'll save them for when the next pandemic hits.

 

Watched Boss Level. Quite enjoyed it. Always liked Frank Grillo and due to the nature of the story (its one of the time loop genre) he's front and centre for most of it. It's dumb fun with excellent production quality and well choreographed action.

Thinking of time loop movies, Groundhog Day must still rein as the best of them. I would follow that with Edge of Tomorrow. The third best for me doesn't market itself as a time loop movie so I won't mention it's title as it was a pleasant reveal when I watched it the first time. I'll only say it stars Andy Samburg and hope you forget that when you come across the movie. Boss Level sits comfortably after those. Lastly, I haven't seen it but I've heard Happy Death Day is worth watching as a comedy-horror.

Most of these time loop stories have one, two or three people reliving the same day. I'm waiting to see if anyone tackles the idea of an entire world reliving the same day. That could be insane with people coming to the realization and then nobody bothering to do any work and society collapses... initially. Authorities will have to get people to repeat their day as if it was normal (they could schedule 'days' off) whilst a solution out of the loop is sought. Then when a solution is found they would need as many people onboard for that last reset day. It could still be a mess the day after. 

 

Feel like there’s been a spate of these time loop movies recently. The interesting thing is except for maybe Edge of Tomorrow of whatever it’s called these days, they all have to in some way reference that they are ripping off Groundhog Day. Happy Death Day is quite fun but doesn’t really do anything interesting with the concept, in fact it loses its thread and almost forgets about it. The unnamed Andy Samburg movie which I really liked, it’s actually a much more interesting take on the idea and it in fact assumes the viewer has seen Groundhog Day and understands the whole concept which makes for a much more clever interpretation.

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13 hours ago, briantw said:

Yeah, and Spartacus, another gloriously trashy show.

Loved Spartacus (see my user name :P )

Agree about trashy to a degree e.g. the OTT nudity and cartoonish violence. However, I think after a shaky start it actually became a fucking good show that touched upon themes like slavery, rape and revenge in surprisingly nuanced and mature ways. I also appreciated the equal nudity (vs. shows like GOT that were obsessed with female nudity to a hilarious degree especially in the first few seasons), and the fact that it was an exceedingly well-plotted, tight show that hurtled to a satisfying climax IMO. Also, the amazing prequel that was developed retroactively (post Andy Whitfield's illness) was great fun. Some brilliant performances and campy, yet memorable dialogue (John Hannah, Lucy Lawless, Manu Bennett, Peter Mensah, Andy Whitfield and more) just added to the experience. 

 

@Tywin et al., I watched all of LOST and enjoyed it throughout. Didn't mind the ending but be forewarned: it was divisive (to put it mildly!). Season 1 remains one of the best I've ever watched. Not sure if you'd want to invest time to watch 6 of them, though. 

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7 hours ago, Nictarion said:

I liked the first episode of Beartown. I’m definitely intrigued enough to watch the rest of the season. Also, the snowy Swedish landscapes were gorgeous. It probably helps that I’m a big hockey fan as well. 

Is this an adaptation of the recent book (that I downloaded a sample of and then read about four pages of before forgetting about)?

We started watching S2 of Discovery of Witches and it's ok. Better than S1 because it has less Intense Romance Vibe and more plot.

 

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2 hours ago, Crixus said:

 

@Tywin et al., I watched all of LOST and enjoyed it throughout. Didn't mind the ending but be forewarned: it was divisive (to put it mildly!). Season 1 remains one of the best I've ever watched. Not sure if you'd want to invest time to watch 6 of them, though. 

Lost is absolutely the last show I will watch in this catch up phase.

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I'm just starting Chernobyl right now. I didn't watch it when it first came out so I thought I would use my week off to get it watched.

Then X Files season 9 and Sister Sister with my wife. Sister Sister is unique in that when i first saw it, I was more into the lives of the girls but now I'm in my thirties, I prefer the parents' storylines :P

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3 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Finally got around to bohemian rhapsody. It was ok, not sure why Malek got so much credit though, he was good, but not remarkable. 

That's what I thought.  It was a decent movie, not great.  My best theory is that Queen's music lifted the film up and that is what the audience connected with, not the acting/directing/script. 

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