Watch, Watched, Watching: The Shield lands on top

[DireWolfSpirit]

I'm shocked how much I've enjoyed the first 2 seasons of Cobra Kai.

[Veltigar]

29 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

I'm shocked how much I've enjoyed the first 2 seasons of Cobra Kai.

Season 2 is the weakest season so far, so you got something nice coming your way  

[Isis]

For some reason Netflix suggested Now You See Me last night and as I was in the spare room with insomnia and chronic pain I was like 'yeah, go on then'. It's from 2013 but it actually feels much more dated to me. As befits a film about magicians and trickery it is almost all surface and no depth. There really isn't a great deal of character depth or development there. There's enough story and pacing for you to watch to the end in order to find out what the big mystery is. It's mildly amusing and does make you go 'ooh' a couple of times. Conversely, for a film about tricks I feel like it could have been TRICKIER or flashier. Is it clever? A little bit. But I think it could have been quite a bit cleverer if it could have been bothered. Just feels a bit of a wasted effort to me.

[Iskaral Pust]

7 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I really loved Detectorists, it’s a cute little show that warms the heart. Feels like a throw back to more innocent days of television.

It was similar to a couple of novels that I’ve read in the past year: humorous but predominantly patient and tolerant of these nerdy men who stand outside (or are developing much slower toward) the common expectations for adult men.  Andy’s wife and MIL, and later Toni too, represent the wider audience.

Is that a growing theme at the margins of pop culture as a pushback on toxic masculinity?  I haven’t seen it enough to say, but I noticed that it wasn’t the first time I saw it lately.  

[Heartofice]

5 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

It was similar to a couple of novels that I’ve read in the past year: humorous but predominantly patient and tolerant of these nerdy men who stand outside (or are developing much slower toward) the common expectations for adult men.  Andy’s wife and MIL, and later Toni too, represent the wider audience.

Is that a growing theme at the margins of pop culture as a pushback on toxic masculinity?  I haven’t seen it enough to say, but I noticed that it wasn’t the first time I saw it lately.  

Oh yeah the show is absolutely about guys who refuse to grow up and take on responsibility, but who retreat into their hobbies as a way of blocking out their issues. There is nothing ground breaking there , and I don’t think it’s making any comment on toxic masculinity either 

[Mindwalker]

On 4/19/2021 at 7:28 PM, Zorral said:

Gentleman Jack was my favorite of all the shows I watched that year. I hadn't realized until the program debuted that Anne Lister had lived and written just like that.  Subsequently I read her journals.  Additionally Suranne Jones is one of best television actors, plus, you know, Sally Wainwright.  There is going to be a second season.  The shooting was postponed for quite some time due to covid, of course.  So I don't know if it will be out this year or not.

I'm just happy I finally found a current show I really liked! And a period drama that doesn't descend into soap territory. (Looking at you, Downton Abbey and countless others.) Also, devastated it's over already. Had to binge it. Yes, Suranne Jones is fantastic. The range of emotions she goes through, from cockiness and charms-our-socks-off, to he subtle ways she shows her denial, to raw vulnerability.

Also, beyond the actng and writing, this show is so meticulously crafted, all the symbolism (of their position relative to each other in the image, mirrors, colors, of Ann practically melting into the wallpaper when at her sister's house... callbacks to classic women's literature), the humorous touches... I can't believe they got no Emmy nominations.

The real life story is incredible. I'm trying not to spoil myself, so I don't read the diaries for now. (A certain other plot, thankfully, has not really happened. Will never view pigs in the same light again...) They are filming now, so probably s2 won't be out until next year. I'm delighted there will be more, but also apprehensive. In a way, they ended on a perfect note.

Spoiler

Plus irl, Mariana seems to have been Lister's love of her life, so... stormy times ahead, I suppose. Not to mention the fact that AL will be dead in 6 or 7 years.

Quote

Just to show we are not all the same and thus we need more than one sort of show: for me the only really good thing in The Sopranos was Carmella. 

 I coudn't stand Breaking Bad on any level, but particularly due to the character of White.  I haven't watched  single ep of The Shield and never will. Or any of these endless blunderbuss franchises that proliferate like an invasive species.

I remember I once tried to watch The Sopranos (because every list that praised 6FU had them on it, too), but couldn't get past episode 1.

 

[Zorral]

11 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I agree with this.  Season 1 is really underrated on this board.

Not by me!

 

9 hours ago, Veltigar said:

  This quote is from Iskaral Pust, not Veltigar, but the frustrating vagaries of the quote function blahblahblah -- -

Endeavor S7 was pretty good.  We tried some Morse but we’ve really found that both Lewis and Endeavor are much better than the original from which they sprung.

My wife suggested that we try Miss Scarlet & The Duke on PBS Masterpiece Classic.  After a couple of eps, that seems too fluffy for my taste.

 Lewis was the best, imo; Endeavour already shows too much of the wetness and PITA that is Morse.  Ugh.

As far as that Scarlett & the Duke thing, I couldn't make myself to even finish the first episode.  For one thing novels and series featuring "the first and only" woman detective in Georgian or Victorian London have become so ubiquitous and repetitive and predictable blah blah blah they hit all the 'beyond boring'  spots.  If there are so many first women detectives in London in the 19th century, why these beyond powerful misogynists running things, men like Bagehot? How can each one be the first and only among the crowds of them?

 

[Aemon Stark]

4 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

I remember I once tried to watch The Sopranos (because every list that praised 6FU had them on it, too), but couldn't get past episode 1.

I couldn't either. The whole narrative device with the therapist felt tired and dated - even though I know it was "fresh" at the time. Then there were weird camera angles that were both flashy and dumb and I was out. 

10 hours ago, Isis said:

For some reason Netflix suggested Now You See Me last night and as I was in the spare room with insomnia and chronic pain I was like 'yeah, go on then'. It's from 2013 but it actually feels much more dated to me. As befits a film about magicians and trickery it is almost all surface and no depth. There really isn't a great deal of character depth or development there. There's enough story and pacing for you to watch to the end in order to find out what the big mystery is. It's mildly amusing and does make you go 'ooh' a couple of times. Conversely, for a film about tricks I feel like it could have been TRICKIER or flashier. Is it clever? A little bit. But I think it could have been quite a bit cleverer if it could have been bothered. Just feels a bit of a wasted effort to me.

It's the very definition of pedestrian, though the sequel is unsurprisingly even worse. I didn't even find it good as a I heist movie. Hopefully it cured the insomnia!!

[SpaceChampion]

I enjoyed Space Sweepers yesterday.  I would have been fine listening to it in Korean if the subtitles kept appearing in English but that didn't happen consistently.  Something was odd about the Netflix subtitles not always appearing when I had the English on, so I put the audio in English on, but then english audio had Korean dubbed over to English as expected but also English dubbed over to Korean!   I had to switch to Korean audio for some scenes to hear it in English! 

Kind of neat though it had Arabic, Spanish and French speakers as well.

[RedEyedGhost]

14 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

I'm shocked how much I've enjoyed the first 2 seasons of Cobra Kai.

I really disliked the third season.  Pretty much everything about it was worse than previous seasons: storyline, fight choreography, acting... just not good.  I did like Daniel going to huh hin huh hunh, but the contrivance of the story to set that up didn't work.  And the ending

[Veltigar]

14 hours ago, Zorral said:

Not by me!

 

 Lewis was the best, imo; Endeavour already shows too much of the wetness and PITA that is Morse.  Ugh.

As far as that Scarlett & the Duke thing, I couldn't make myself to even finish the first episode.  For one thing novels and series featuring "the first and only" woman detective in Georgian or Victorian London have become so ubiquitous and repetitive and predictable blah blah blah they hit all the 'beyond boring'  spots.  If there are so many first women detectives in London in the 19th century, why these beyond powerful misogynists running things, men like Bagehot? How can each one be the first and only among the crowds of them?

 

Wetness and PITA that is Morse? I'm a bit at a loss about what you mean? 

Endeavor has certainly slid down the rankings though, no question about that. I still maintain that the Endeavor pilot is the high-mark for serious British murder mysteries though. That episode had everything you want in the genre and then some, a pity they are fudging the landing.

In large part I think Endeavor suffers from problems with its backstory. Every single one of these shows has the occasional episode where the murder mystery isn't any good but if you are interested in the life of the investigators behind the crime than they always manage to pull you through. 

That's one of the reasons why I'm a firm proponent of Frost as the best sort of installment in the genre. Sure, Frost also investigates other things than murders and looking at some of the episodes today, your eyes start to bleed because they look so dated but they did manage to make you care about Frost without turning it into a soap opera.

With Endeavor on the other hand 

Spoiler

I'm still invested, but I have to admit that the soap opera element of when he will hook up with Joan Thursday is getting stale for me. I'm rooting for the pair of them, but you can only accept so many seasons of them being teased as a couple without losing interest.

 

14 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

I remember I once tried to watch The Sopranos (because every list that praised 6FU had them on it, too), but couldn't get past episode 1.

 

I watched 5 seasons of that and then I got busy and never felt the urge to see season 6 beyond the whole "I want to scratch it off my list" impulse. 

[Isis]

6 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Wetness and PITA that is Morse? I'm a bit at a loss about what you mean? 

Endeavor has certainly slid down the rankings though, no question about that. I still maintain that the Endeavor pilot is the high-mark for serious British murder mysteries though. That episode had everything you want in the genre and then some, a pity they are fudging the landing.

In large part I think Endeavor suffers from problems with its backstory. Every single one of these shows has the occasional episode where the murder mystery isn't any good but if you are interested in the life of the investigators behind the crime than they always manage to pull you through. 

That's one of the reasons why I'm a firm proponent of Frost as the best sort of installment in the genre. Sure, Frost also investigates other things than murders and looking at some of the episodes today, your eyes start to bleed because they look so dated but they did manage to make you care about Frost without turning it into a soap opera.

With Endeavor on the other hand 

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm still invested, but I have to admit that the soap opera element of when he will hook up with Joan Thursday is getting stale for me. I'm rooting for the pair of them, but you can only accept so many seasons of them being teased as a couple without losing interest.

 

I watched 5 seasons of that and then I got busy and never felt the urge to see season 6 beyond the whole "I want to scratch it off my list" impulse. 

Look, we can't talk about Lewis any more because of Lawrence Fox, obviously.

Personally I prefer Endeavour to Morse. I think by the time you get a few seasons in, it becomes quite clear where the miserable Morse of Morse (show) comes from and that he isn't going to be doing any happily ever after stuff. He's doomed (by his own ridiculous actions) to be unlucky in love because his judgment is so poor. For someone who is so 'clinical' in his work, he's just such an utter fool in his personal life. He also has real issues of unprofessionalism with mixing work and romance which is STILL there in Morse. So, you know, forget about him getting married and settling down or anything quaint like that. But, that said, I REALLY enjoy the show and all the associated parts of it around the crime solving bit - the clothes, the music, the landscapes, the infrastructure of policing, how women are treated in the workplace, ... all of that is really well done I think. But, the show is about the character - hence we see his character development and personality, as well as the cases he works on.

ETA...In another bout of Insomnia last night I watched the first episode of Bridgerton and it was EXACTLY how I expected it to be and I felt absolutely nothing. I don't really do period dramas (as in, I don't seek them out as a genre). 

[Zorral]

15 minutes ago, Isis said:

the clothes, the music, the landscapes, the infrastructure of policing, how women are treated in the workplace, ... all of that is really well done

Absolutely, even the women's clothes, as they change during the course of the series.  This is an element that David Simon's series consistently get wrong, which they have no excuse for doing, as everyone working on his shows were present during whichever era we are speaking of.

18 minutes ago, Isis said:

Personally I prefer Endeavour to Morse. I think by the time you get a few seasons in, it becomes quite clear where the miserable Morse of Morse (show) comes from and that he isn't going to be doing any happily ever after stuff. He's doomed (by his own ridiculous actions) to be unlucky in love because his judgment is so poor.

Very well stated. Thank you!

19 minutes ago, Isis said:

I watched the first episode of Bridgerton and it was EXACTLY how I expected it to be and I felt absolutely nothing. I

I do seek them out due to period drama, which means I do share your reactions here, plus I just can't get out of my head the historic era's Bridgerton, one of the most notoriously politically / electioneering corrupt of all the boroughs for those wanting a seat in Parliament.  The amount of bribes for votes (recall only a few could vote then too) was stratospheric.  Even that smug, complacent, misogynist bigot banker, Bagehot, couldn't get around that.

[Iskaral Pust]

Endeavor is a pretty good character-driven series.  The only weakness IMO is that young Morse’s growing self-pitying sense of superiority (that may seem like an oxymoron but it’s not) is hard to watch, and yet that is the eventual destination of the character so it cannot be otherwise.  Not too dissimilar from Anakin being whiny and entitled.  The quality of the mysteries is uneven but the structure of each season is to have the A and B plots eventually be connected, and to see a balance of Morse’s cerebral high brow approach and Fred Thursday’s earthy low brow approach contribute in different ways to the solution, interspersed with beautiful music and architecture, and a nod to the social history of the period.  The quality of the show is not driven by the quality of the mystery; that’s a lesser component.

[Zorral]

8 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

red Thursday’s earthy low brow approach contribute in different ways to the solution,

Roger Allam's Thursday -- and the changes in his marriage and his wife -- are what kept me watching this series. It must be nearly finished by now, right?  We're into 1970 with series 7 (which is as far as I've seen).

[Ran]

Watched both seasons of Netflix's Blown Away, a reality competition show featuring glassblowers. Big chunks of each show are skippable because there's literally no real drama and practically no notable personalities, but watching glassblowers at their craft and seeing some of the techniques and what they can conjure with them is quite impressive. I've a new appreciation for glass art.

Also watched Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight for the first time. An absolutely epic story behind the making of it -- the whole process of financing it, and the post-production, were quite the struggle -- lead to a film that was for a very long time considered one of the misses in Welles's career. It has received critical reassessment of late, though, and I can see why: it's a unique, auteur-driven translation of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff (played by Welles, of course) to the screen in a way that has not been done before or since. It originated from a play he created, the bulk of it coming from Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and the postscript about Falstaff in Henry V. Besides Welles, John Gielgud plays the part of Henry IV, which he does magnificently, while Keith Baxter plays a handsome, charming, and occasionally acidic Prince Hal. Jeanne Moreau and Margaret Rutherford also feature. The Battle of Shrewsbury sequence is a master-class in editing to deliberately create controlled chaos. 

 

[Rippounet]

Finished the first season of Resident Alien last night.
It's a nice little comedy, about 80% carried by Alan Tudyk who's very good in his role. Most of the jokes aren't particularly original or even enough to laugh out loud, but the pace is decent and the characters quite credible and likeable. In fact, the first episodes are rather slow compared to the last few episodes of the season (which is good in my book).
All in all a decent watch, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, as it lacks something truly unique to make it stand out. We watched it because the missus loved People of Earth, and the two shows have a lot in common.

One thing that I was excited about somehow was one of the guest stars. Not Nathan Fillion (who just had to show up of course) because he was quite unrecognisable (and I didn't recognize him ^^), but...

 

Georgio A. Tsoukalos as himself (the guy from the "Aliens" meme).

As far as the plot is concerned, I think it was a bit too linear. I was very disappointed that...

  ... the mayor was NOT an alien. Generally speaking, I expected a plot twist for the end of the season that never came, and I can't help but feel dissatisfied about it.

Also, several mysteries remain unsolved...

[Veltigar]

I finished season 3 of Breaking Bad yesterday and I think I'm striking out on my own from here on out opinion wise. Overall, I think this season was actually worse than season 1 and 2. The maddening coincides and ineptitude of the criminals remains absolutely stunning. 

There were also several stretches of the show that I was just kind of... bored. At its best, I can enjoy it without it ever becoming must-watch television. At its worst though, as in the filler fly episode, I'm just actively bored. None of the decisions made by the major players make any sense to me. 

On the plus side, I thought Walter's family was less annoying than the previous seasons. 

On 4/21/2021 at 5:25 PM, Isis said:

Look, we can't talk about Lewis any more because of Lawrence Fox, obviously.

Personally I prefer Endeavour to Morse. I think by the time you get a few seasons in, it becomes quite clear where the miserable Morse of Morse (show) comes from and that he isn't going to be doing any happily ever after stuff. He's doomed (by his own ridiculous actions) to be unlucky in love because his judgment is so poor. For someone who is so 'clinical' in his work, he's just such an utter fool in his personal life. He also has real issues of unprofessionalism with mixing work and romance which is STILL there in Morse. So, you know, forget about him getting married and settling down or anything quaint like that. But, that said, I REALLY enjoy the show and all the associated parts of it around the crime solving bit - the clothes, the music, the landscapes, the infrastructure of policing, how women are treated in the workplace, ... all of that is really well done I think. But, the show is about the character - hence we see his character development and personality, as well as the cases he works on.

ETA...In another bout of Insomnia last night I watched the first episode of Bridgerton and it was EXACTLY how I expected it to be and I felt absolutely nothing. I don't really do period dramas (as in, I don't seek them out as a genre). 

I'll admit that I haven't seen the entirety of Morse, so I can't really say much about how the character eventually ends up but if I'm not mistaken the Morse in that series is said to have a wife in the past with whom he was happy and then died no?

Spoiler

I always assumed him and Joan Thursday would eventually hook up and that she would die some time afterwards giving Morse that final push into the mess he is in the original show. If he will never even reach even that short period of happiness, it's quite a depressing series.

 

[briantw]

Perhaps Breaking Bad is a show that was better experienced in the moment when you had to wait a week to see what would happen next and everyone lost their minds theorizing about where it would all end up?

I don't know.  But I watched it live and fucking loved it.  It had its lulls but it's gorgeous and well acted and very tense, and has quite a few highly memorable moments.

I don't think it's as good as The Wire and I think The Shield had a much better, messier ending, but Breaking Bad is definitely in my top ten.  

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

Quote

Spoiler

I always assumed him and Joan Thursday would eventually hook up and that she would die some time afterwards giving Morse that final push into the mess he is in the original show

.

 

Spoiler

Morse never married.  At one point he tries to explain it as, "too picky, too choosey, too etc.",  while self-pitying about it.  It's for the same inexplicable self-sabotaging reasons that he dropped out of university -- and never went back, though he could have, which would have improved his prospects even in the police force, if he had.