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Watch, Watched, Watching: The Shield lands on top


Veltigar

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8 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Apart from F4 and that weird show in Vegas, has Chiklis done anything since the shield? 

He also did the Freak Show season of American Horror Story. I think that was actually the last one I watched before dropping it. 

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And now, for Something Different!  :D

Raoul Peck's 4-part HBO docu-series, Exterminate All the Brutes.

Anthony Wilks' London Review of Books documentary on YouTube, Erica Hobsbawm, The Consolation of History:

 

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I watched two films earlier today. The first one was David Michod's The King and the second was Lee Isaac Chung's Minari. I was very happy to see Minari, I think it's a very strong film and definitely the best film nominated for Best Picture that I have seen this year. It's more compelling than Nomadland, better plotted than Promising Young Woman and just overall superior to Sound of Metal (but that's a really crummy film so that's not hard). I thought the performances were strong and it managed to keep me involved throughout. The story really felt personal to me, so I'm not surprised that the screenplay was based on the creator's actual childhood experiences :) 

That is more than I can say from The King which was really a big dud. I had to wait for a very long time before I was finally able to see it and the wait really wasn't worth it. I don't know how Michod was able to create a film centered around the Battle of Agincourt and managed to bore me to tears but I actually fell asleep several times. The best thing about the film was the outdoor cinematography which was beautiful on occasion, but I can't even compliment the film across the board for that because many of the indoor scenes were badly lit. The performances sucked (R-Patz has a ridiculous accent, while Joel Edgerton is just a blank wall as Fallstaf), the action quickly felt stale and this film also bizarrely shat on both Shakespeare's depiction and the actual historical events. Deviating from either of those I can get, but the replacements were just resoundingly dull. I would recommend everyone to steer clear and just rewatch the Olivier or Brannagh films of the Henry V play.

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I may just have found a show I want to watch!

After the first ep of Killing Eve, I'm intrigued. It has me on the edge of my seat, it's also strangely funny, Eve is great and a hoot, the settings are gorgeous, the music is fitting... OK, I could do without the gore, but nothing's perfect...

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Just binge-watched all of S1 of The Terror. Obviously, very addictive and exciting, though I'd also quite like to round up the cast, sets and crew again and get them to do a second version not based on the Dan Simmons book and minus the supernatural monster

Spoiler

and sinister gay sociopath

Jared Harris was awesome as usual. I'd like to point out that I've thought Harris was awesome since he played Captain Anderson in To The Ends of the Earth (2005). Everyone else climbed on the bandwagon later! I got a kick just out of seeing him don period Royal Navy uniform again. 

Spoiler

The decision to let his character survive was understandable if playing very much into TV drama tropes. It would just be so bleak without it. 

That said, I hope at some point we get an adaptation of In the Kingdom of Ice about the USS Jeannette. Albeit I'm not sure I could watch the end. 

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On 4/10/2021 at 7:50 AM, Veltigar said:

 

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Now that I have mentioned the devil, let's turn our attention to Vic. With him, the exact opposite occurred. One o the thing that has greatly intrigued me about his character is that he's so obviously a bad guy, but yet I couldn't help but root for him. Every messed up thing he did, every time someone figured him out, I wanted him to escape, to out wit them and remain this sort of vigilante like presence on the street. 

<snip>

I'd be curious to see what you all thought of the ending and what would happen with Vic after he left his new office?

 

Yeah the thing I like about The Shield is that you end up rooting for him throughout the show despite

Spoiler

murdering a cop in the pilot episode. This is not Walter White who starts off as a very sympathetic man slowly becoming a monster. Vic Mackey was a monster from episode 1 and you still root for him. And yeah, he is the main villain. All agents of crime in Farmington either work for him or are punished by him at some point. Him selling out Ronnie at the end was the best. I recall an interview somewhere where (I think) Shawn Ryan mentioned that corrupt cops are only every brought to justice when one of them rats the others out. I loved how Vic sells Ronnie out particularly when Ronnie is the most minor of the characters on the Strike team. 


As for what happens after the ending, well.. it's intentionally Marlo Stanfield-esque (despite airing before the finale of the Wire) in that Vic won't change. He gets away with everything in the end except with his family and I have to assume he'll do whatever it takes to reconnect with them because he doesn't allow himself to lose.

 

 

 

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I'm watching Umbrella Academy Season 1. Its okay. Seems to be trying to juggle more than the writers were capable of. I have many questions but perhaps most importantly, why would you leave full trays of doughnuts in your shop that you have just abandoned for a new life of twitching? Think of the mice!

 

Edit: Finished season one, still so ma y questions, qualms, and concerns. My main one I guess: 

is Luther and Allison supposed to seem romantic, rather than creepy? I know they are only adopted siblings but still feels a bit ick.

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I watched two episodes of the latest season of McDonald & Dodds.  For anyone with a love of British crime dramas (think Midsomer Murders), this is a must-watch. It's without a doubt the best addition to the genre since Endeavor made its debut. 

It's hard to say why this series clicks so much with me. On the surface it combines many rote elements of the genre. There is the historical setting in the lovely city of Bath (think Morse's Oxford), the two oddball detectives complementing each other (think Lewis and Hathaway in Lewis), the dickish commander (think Mullet from A Touch of Frost) and of course the totally bonkers murder plots of the OG of this genre, Midsomer Murders. It does however bring all of this elements together with a great deal of style. It's a noticeably bright and bubbly series, despite the subject matter mainly because it knows just how absurd it is.

Watching it, I can't really critique it for the ridiculous plots because this show damn well knows what it is. If I could switch director's commentary on for this series, I'm sure it would just be a picture in picture of the series creator sitting there constantly winking at me.  

Not that I mind, we can all use some harmless diversion right now. This gleefully happy series ticks of all those boxes for me. A shame they only make three episodes a season of this, but perhaps that will help keep it fresh. Most of these shows are squeezed out to quickly despite whatever promising start they might have had.

One final thing I will praise this series for, it does CoVID really well. It actually mentions it, shows some changes in society and it doesn't try to exist in a parallel reality where the pandemic never happens. I quite like that approach as I know other series that have just excised the pandemic from their narrative all together despite claiming to be "contemporary" shows.

20 hours ago, WarGalley said:

Yeah the thing I like about The Shield is that you end up rooting for him throughout the show despite

  Reveal hidden contents

murdering a cop in the pilot episode. This is not Walter White who starts off as a very sympathetic man slowly becoming a monster. Vic Mackey was a monster from episode 1 and you still root for him. And yeah, he is the main villain. All agents of crime in Farmington either work for him or are punished by him at some point. Him selling out Ronnie at the end was the best. I recall an interview somewhere where (I think) Shawn Ryan mentioned that corrupt cops are only every brought to justice when one of them rats the others out. I loved how Vic sells Ronnie out particularly when Ronnie is the most minor of the characters on the Strike team. 


As for what happens after the ending, well.. it's intentionally Marlo Stanfield-esque (despite airing before the finale of the Wire) in that Vic won't change. He gets away with everything in the end except with his family and I have to assume he'll do whatever it takes to reconnect with them but he doesn't allow himself to lose.

 

 

 

It's especially sad because I feel like 

Spoiler

Ronny looked to Vic like almost a father figure. He was the smartest of Vic's cohort and just as closed off as Vic himself. He also had all the right instincts and if he had listened to them instead of remaining devoted to Vic, he would have gotten away.

In a sense the episode and really the entire show revolves around that final betrayal. The shooting of Terry and all the other crimes he commit, you could sort of twist yourself in believing that Vic did that to protect his make-shift family or the community at large. When he throws Ronny under the buss though and then doesn't do anything to protect his most loyal follower, that's when the mask really falls off. I'll probably rewatch that confession scene of Chicklis a few times over the coming years. Despite the fact that his appearance doesn't change, I feel like the performance is so good that you can finally see the beast underneath him. Evil purified to its most elemental form.

 

Your guess for the ending is credible. I'd watch a film of Vic tearing 

Spoiler

through the FBI trying to locate his family only to be shot by Cassidy in the end. I'd like to see him get his come comeuppance to rid me of the taint of rooting for him ;) 

 

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For people in the US, McDonald & Dodds is available on BritBox.  I've given it the go-by, as I do most things on BritBox. The service seems to believe viewers cannot Get Enough Agatha Christie on endless, relentless repeat, nor can viewers possibly want anything else. But I'll give this a try on @Veltigar's rec. :cheers:

Though, there are good things. Sometimes.

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On 4/10/2021 at 10:25 AM, Tywin et al. said:

Working through Best Picture nominees, I watched Mank last night on Netflix. Talk about Oscar bait. If you like throwback movies or movies about throwback movies, you'll love it. Personally I thought the acting was top notch. Seyfried disappeared so much into her character that I literally didn't even know it was her until the credits rolled. This movie shouldn't win any of the major awards, but I understand the nominations. 

I honestly couldn't get through it. It's well made and stylish but... also slow and boring and low stakes. Or so it seemed in the first half. 

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Watched Boogie Nights last night. So fucking good. Thought Reynolds and Wahlberg were phenomenal along with the music and the constantly moving camera. Enjoyed every second of it. The Rahad scene at the end was exhilarating. Thought it was a good idea showing the big hog at the end instead of the beginning. Kept the mystery and thought going. 

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16 minutes ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

Watched Boogie Nights last night. So fucking good. Thought Reynolds and Wahlberg were phenomenal along with the music and the constantly moving camera. Enjoyed every second of it. The Rahad scene at the end was exhilarating. Thought it was a good idea showing the big hog at the end instead of the beginning. Kept the mystery and thought going. 

One of my favorite all time scenes from any film. 

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2 hours ago, Aemon Stark said:

I honestly couldn't get through it. It's well made and stylish but... also slow and boring and low stakes. Or so it seemed in the first half. 

Yeah, it's certainly not for everyone. I actually thought I was going to stop watching early on since I didn't have to pay for it, but it got better and more engrossing with time. It's very much an art house flick though.

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Just enjoyed watching Robert the Bruce.

Loved the scenery and a great cast which includes the same actor playing Bruce who played him in Braveheart. Also Jared Harris from Mad Men and Chernobyl.

I'm certain many posters will! know this history far better than me. My impression is that it would've been the period of history that would be post William Wallace.

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Watched Alexander, with Colin Farrell today...Extended exclusive definitive directors cut.

Ugh. 3.5 hours of time jumping and a Colin trying to hide his accent didn't work for me. Some good battle scenes though. Especially liked the color use for the war elephant ending scenes. Love me some Rosario!! Also nice to see The Hound as a younger man.

For my own limited tastes I wish they had just ran the timeline straight, but that's just me.

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33 minutes ago, dbunting said:

Love me some Rosario!!

Damn straight, she was at peak powers during that time.

When I run out of gangster fliks to watch I sometimes like an occasional classic Western. Watched Rio Bravo with JWayne and the Dino also has a young Ricky Nelson (singer).

Very interesting in Rio Bravo to hear the story behind this legendary song of the Alamo which translates as no quarter. As in Santa Ana was giving no mercy to those holding out.

Beautiful song.

 

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3 hours ago, dbunting said:

Watched Alexander, with Colin Farrell today...Extended exclusive definitive directors cut.

Ugh. 3.5 hours of time jumping and a Colin trying to hide his accent didn't work for me. Some good battle scenes though. Especially liked the color use for the war elephant ending scenes. Love me some Rosario!! Also nice to see The Hound as a younger man.

For my own limited tastes I wish they had just ran the timeline straight, but that's just me.

Was he hiding his accent? I seem to remember the whole movie using Irish as it’s fall back Greek accent 

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