Watch, Watched, Watching: Coming 2 America is the reward for our sinful life

[Veltigar]

I finished up the third season of the Deutschland (89) series I started last week. Looking back, I have mixed feelings about it. I tremendously enjoyed revisiting this universe and I think it was definitely better than 86 (though admittedly not nearly as good as 83) however there were also some clear flaws that tended to grow bigger throughout the season.

First and foremost, there was the lack of a click with the central mission. I guess it's hard to do something more nerve racking than 83's prevention of a nuclear holocaust, but they do not really seem capable of introducing a big bad that works. I felt that about 86 and I have the same feeling now. 

Secondly, I still don't really give a shit about the side stories. Every time Martin Rauch or something not directly connected to his main mission came on screen, I had time for a toilet break. It's not a good sign if you know automatically where to hit that pause button in a show. I get why the scene was there and it does try to put some degree of "realism" in there, looking at the trouble of ordinary folks, but they shouldn't have bothered really. I jumped on board of this ship to follow the exploits of a brilliant, yet reluctant young HVA agent and that's the only thing that really matters to me.

That being said, there is still plenty to keep me engaged and I would love to return for a new season if they ever want to make a Deutschland 92. Especially since there are still so many unanswered questions about what happened to characters from season one.

The central performance by Jonas Nay is great fun, his supporting characters are cool as well. I particularly like his father and his new girlfriend. That was a great performance from another beautiful actress the Germans are hiding away from the world. Between her, Lisa Tomaschewsky from season one and Lavinia Wilson I really wonder why they aren't more well-known, same for Jonas Nay. They all seem very comfortable in English, have the looks and the skills so with this series being so popular I would hope they get more projects outside of Germany. 

 

[Heartofice]

Got through Behind her eyes on Netflix. It’s a pretty decent psychological thriller with a bizarre and odd twist that doesn’t seem to quite fit with the story.

Spoiler

The whole astral projection thing seems like an after thought in the context of the whole show. Although it is basically the explanation for everything, and is what makes that ending so dark, you can see the whole thing working pretty without it. 

Have to say the two female leads of the show are freaking great. Adele is played by Bono’s daughter! I didn’t hold it against her. Actress playing Louise was brilliant too, incredibly natural and charismatic, a real joy to watch, I hope she ends up being in a lot more shows.

I’ve seen there have been some extreme reactions to the twist the show takes halfway though, and I guess reading about it meant that I wasn’t too put off by it. I’m not sure it was handled all that well , as there is little to suggest it’s coming and very few hints. 
 

But I did like Behind her eyes, it was far better than I was expecting, I assumed it was utter trash.

[Ran]

Eve Hewson (aka Bono's daughter) was also in Soderbergh's The Knick and the recent The Luminaries. 

[Heartofice]

She’s really good, and pretty hot, even if sometimes you look at her and kind of see Bono staring back at you 

[Tywin et al.]

Idk, I wouldn't know she's Bono's daughter unless someone told me. I've only seen her in The Knick, but I thought she was good at her role. Her full legal name is a mouthful though.

[Heartofice]

It’s there in her face if you look for it

[Tywin et al.]

I guess kind of, but looking at a few photos I think she looks a lot more like her mom, though I'm bad at this in the same way I'm terrible about guessing people's ages, so I just bet the under to be safe.

[Heartofice]

It’s probably cos she’s short, like Bono is tiny and.. I dunno, she looks kinda similar at times 

[Ran]

Until you find a photo of her wearing sunglasses, I don’t think the argument can be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.

[Tywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

Until you find a photo of her wearing sunglasses, I don’t think the argument can be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.

One of the funniest sound bites on ESPN is a former star WR telling a story about how Brad Pitt introduced him to a guy, who told him he was in the music industry, and Keyshawn was trying to give him a pep talk about if he keeps at it he can maybe breakthrough in such a tough industry. Then Pitt asked him if he's ever heard of U2 and he was like sorta, Bono, right? Then had that oh shit moment that the person he was speaking to is far more famous and successful than himself, and Key was the number one pick in his year's draft class.

I feel bad saying this because I do think she's very attractive, but the most common thing about the two physically is there are just so many pictures of both of them in which you have to ask yourself are they either really tired, or on a fuck ton of drugs?

[Ran]

4 hours ago, Ran said:

Until you find a photo of her wearing sunglasses, I don’t think the argument can be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.

Found! I don't know, I think her jawline definitely shows Bono's influence, but her mother Ali seems responsible for more of her looks. Maybe a bit of a toss-up.

[Isis]

On 3/23/2021 at 9:19 AM, Heartofice said:

Got through Behind her eyes on Netflix. It’s a pretty decent psychological thriller with a bizarre and odd twist that doesn’t seem to quite fit with the story.

  Hide contents

The whole astral projection thing seems like an after thought in the context of the whole show. Although it is basically the explanation for everything, and is what makes that ending so dark, you can see the whole thing working pretty without it. 

Have to say the two female leads of the show are freaking great. Adele is played by Bono’s daughter! I didn’t hold it against her. Actress playing Louise was brilliant too, incredibly natural and charismatic, a real joy to watch, I hope she ends up being in a lot more shows.

I’ve seen there have been some extreme reactions to the twist the show takes halfway though, and I guess reading about it meant that I wasn’t too put off by it. I’m not sure it was handled all that well , as there is little to suggest it’s coming and very few hints. 
 

But I did like Behind her eyes, it was far better than I was expecting, I assumed it was utter trash.

It is interesting to hear that you think that the twist is not handled well and seems to come from nowhere. I thought they did a great job of inteweaving the past and the present. I thought it was subtle but relentless in showing you that there were some horrible dark secrets in the depths of Adele and David's relationship and that it all stemmed from Adele's time in an institution (can't recall the name of it). If all that backstory isn't 'leading up to' the revelation then what role did you think it was playing in the series? Obviously I can't 'un-read' the book while watching it. If you say it doesn't work for non-readers then that is a shame. But I thought it was handled as well as can be expected, they drip fed all the back story at a good pace and when you look back there are clues sprinkled throughout the series that back up what was happening.

On 3/23/2021 at 9:30 AM, Ran said:

Eve Hewson (aka Bono's daughter) was also in Soderbergh's The Knick and the recent The Luminaries. 

Wow. I watched The Luminaries and did not realise it was the same actress - I guess Eva Green was the more memorable of the depictions on that adaptation.

[Heartofice]

2 minutes ago, Isis said:

It is interesting to hear that you think that the twist is not handled well and seems to come from nowhere. I thought they did a great job of inteweaving the past and the present. I thought it was subtle but relentless in showing you that there were some horrible dark secrets in the depths of Adele and David's relationship and that it all stemmed from Adele's time in an institution (can't recall the name of it). If all that backstory isn't 'leading up to' the revelation then what role did you think it was playing in the series? Obviously I can't 'un-read' the book while watching it. If you say it doesn't work for non-readers then that is a shame. But I thought it was handled as well as can be expected, they drip fed all the back story at a good pace and when you look back there are clues sprinkled throughout the series that back up what was happening.

Wow. I watched The Luminaries and did not realise it was the same actress - I guess Eva Green was the more memorable of the depictions on that adaptation.

I think it's pretty common complaint of the show from what I've seen on the internet, I think because for about 3 episodes you think you are watching one type of show, which is grounded in reality, and seems to be a relatively run of the mill psychological thriller. It's just that half of the way through it takes a turn with it's reveal and adds a supernatural layer to the story that really didn't seem to be there at all before then. I think that is quite a harsh jump from one genre to the another. Even if you take into account Louise's dreams which could be seem to be a little abstract and supernatural, you can still pass that off as artistic flourish.

I think that is where the show is a little jarring, and I think if I didn't have any hint it was coming because I hadn't seen reviews I would have been very much like 'WTF?!'

[Tywin et al.]

It's staggering listening to facts and trivia about Batman & Robin. Good for Arnold for making nearly a million dollars per ice pun.

[RumHam]

38 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's staggering listening to facts and trivia about Batman & Robin. Good for Arnold for making nearly a million dollars per ice pun.

Remembering a movie like that really put's the Snyder cut thing in perspective. Yes it was bad but it was not nipples on the batsuit bad. 

[Tywin et al.]

8 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Remembering a movie like that really put's the Snyder cut thing in perspective. Yes it was bad but it was not nipples on the batsuit bad. 

Honestly the bat nipples might not even break the top ten things that were brought up. 

I love that Clooney actually gives people their money back if they complained about the film to his face. That's gangster as hell. Really all the Clooney trivia section related to the film is hilarious, and he's right to say that it was a terrible movie, he was bad in it and it was the best thing for his career. 

[Ran]

18 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Remembering a movie like that really put's the Snyder cut thing in perspective. Yes it was bad but it was not nipples on the batsuit bad. 

2 hours of torture vs. 4 hours of torture seem like a pretty easy choice to me.

Lets see, finished Outlander's latest season. Definitely seem to have liked it more than the last. I'm sure the final episode of this one was very controversial given its subject matter. A look at wikis regarding corresponding novels shows that they did some heavy reconfiguration of events, and some removal of characters, to get where we are now. Curious to see if the next season will get us to 1776.

I've now watched nearly all the Academy Award nominees for documentary, excepting only Time which is an Amazon Prime thing which we don't have.  I've already reviewed The Mole Agent, On Netflix, I watched My Octopus Teacher, which is beautifully filmed as a nature documentary, but it struck me as being ... well, a nature documentary, and not a superbly exceptional one. Following the life of one octopus, and its interactions with a diver who tries to visit it every day, was interesting, but I didn't take anything really deeply out of it (except  for one rather magical moment near the end where the octopus first appears to indulge in play by messing with a shoal of fish, and then suddenly swims over to the diver and basically snuggles up with him for an extended period in a way that is very hard not to anthropomorphize.) It's well-executed and worth the watch, but I'm not sure it deserves a place on the final ballot knowing what some of the other shortlist was.

Also on Netflix is Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, about a summer camp for disabled children and teens in the Catskills named Camp Jened that became a nucleus of disability rights activism that ended up having national consequence. A mixture of present-day footage and film and video taken from the time, it's eye-opening to think about how different the world was. Well-done and insightful.

Finally, the latest I've seen is Collective, a really well-done documentary about the aftermath of a horrific night club fire in Bucharest during a concert by a Romanian band named Goodbye Gravity. The most harrowing moment in the whole thing is footage from inside the club as the vocalist pointed out something had caught fire on the roof, that it wasn't one of their pyrotechnics, and starts to ask if there's a fire extinguisher when just ... whoosh, the flames rapidly spread and the stampede started. The footage continues on inside the club as the camera was either drooped or the person holding it was lying down in the crushed mass, and you could see the fire coming closer and closer as people screamed in terror... just awful. 64 people were killed (including every member of the band but the vocalist) and over 140 injured, but the true scandal was that the majority of those who died did so while hosptialized.

This led to questions from the media, and the documentary takes us into the newsroom of one of the daily newspapers that blew open layers within layers of corruption rife through the medical supply system, the hospital system, and on through the government. Disinfectants that were diluted to 10% of the strength they were supposed to have, disinfectants whose active ingredients were procured by a shell company registered in Cyprus and sold on to the manufacturer at 7 times market cost, money which went into the CEO's pocket as well as in to the pockets of people he bribed at various levels to look the other way; hospital chiefs embezzeling tens of millions of euros for their own benefit, and receiving kickbacks from surgeons to get the more "lucrative" patients to operate on as it was expected that they'd be bribed by them; safety inspectors leaned on by politicians to approve facilities as meeting requirements for taking care of burn victims, when in fact they were so badly off that footage leaked from the burn ward showed patients covered in maggots...

Just awful, awful stuff that happened in Romania, and sadly the documentary, at least, ends on a sour note. But it feels very, very real, if no doubt a little sensationalized (there's a car accident that the newsroom seems sure was a murder to keep someone quiet, but I couldn't find any more on that and I think the kind of accident shown doesn't seem very like what would actually happen if you were trying to kill someone deliberately.) So far, of the four I've seen, this one strikes me as the most interesting and complex, taking us into an investigative newsroom and then, later, into the offices of a reformist health minister struggling to address the corruption that has festered over decades.

[Luzifer's right hand]

Season 6 of Buffy feels a bit lacking although there are some very good episodes. Still the best musical episode ever though.

[Heartofice]

Alice in Borderland really goes downhill once they get to the beach. I went from thinking the show was brilliant to barely being able to finish episodes. Such a bad decision of the story to settle down in one place like that. Reminds me of the times when Walking Dead has everyone sit around in a town twiddling their thumbs.

The show went full Anime too. That’s not a compliment 

[Cas Stark]

We have always lived in the castle.  Beautifully filmed, great sets, good acting... but I couldn't get past the major changes they made to the story from the source material.