Watch, Watched, Watching: The Shield lands on top

[A True Kaniggit]

Hey, the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale has started.

That snuck up on me. 
 

I’ll knock out a couple episodes tomorrow.

So at the end of April it May be that June kills some fascists. 

[Isis]

On 4/25/2021 at 10:07 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

Finished Shadow & Bone.  The best descriptor for it that I can think of is aggressively mediocre.  

I've have been watching it on my commute to work. I was initially down with the idea of rolling the witches and the Locke Lamora gang stories into one but it did make the first episode a bit crowded (even for someone who vaguely knew what was going on). I think that ultimately it will be better this way, but it just took longer to get to know the main players and I could see some people losing interest before that point. Mal's two buddies are still completely forgettable even at episode four or five. I feel like the icky romance angle of the first book has been played down a lot and it makes things more palatable. I'll keep going and finish the series.

 

 

[Ran]

Quite liked Shadow and Bone, in a qualified way -- it had its issues, but its earnestness and the cast were appealing.

Also really enjoying The Nevers, which is up to 3 episodes now. Really fun and inventive (there's a fight sequence in the 3rd episode that's very, very cool).

Watched A Room With a View for the umpteenth time because I felt like it. Wonderfully charming, and it makes me ache to be able to see Florence some day.

Also watched Dick Johnson is Dead, a doctumentary by cinematographer and documentarian Kirsten Johnson featuring her eponymous father as he declines due to dementia. There's a gentleness and sweetness to this portrait of her father, and the things they do to imagine various scenes of his eventual death, that were very touching. There's also a standout moment at the end, at a staged funeral, involving his oldest friend. It's a very graceful film, in a way.

And then, because I've managed to never actually see what's widely considered one of the greatest films of its genre ever made, I watched Rosemary's Baby. My goodness. Can't believe it took so long to see it.

[ljkeane]

I watched the first episode of Mare of Easttown. It was mostly just setting the scene but it seems decent enough so far. My main issue with it was that it was pretty clear throughout the first episode who was going to end up getting murdered and I just wasn't in the mood for it. I was heavily rooting for the unusual twist for a dark murder mystery series of it actually just turning out fine for everyone.

[Ran]

Oh, watched the first two episodes of Mare of Easttown as well. Big fan of Winslet. It is ... I don't quite know. It has all the prestige gloss, the acting's good, but while Winslet's always excellent, the story so far feels pretty rote.

[Zorral]

Whereas for this viewer, from the opening of the first scene, I was all in.  Brilliant staphage, fine choice of location, interesting characters. From the first moments I felt that delicious settle-in confidence to a screen experience created with all the authority of professionals all at the top of the tv game knowing what they are doing. The strength from the start is the deep, solid anchorage in place and time, so one knows this is going to be good!

Spoiler

I just hope the killer isn't Jack Irish -- but so far, Easttown seems to be populated exclusively by African Americans and Irish Americans. And considering what has been revealed yet again about a famous, adored novelist -- and then also about his biographer -- in the last couple of weeks, I have me fears. To make him a suspect, we will have to look very closely at the time line of the murder.  So far, it seems, it couldn't be him, considering where and when he hooked up with Mare. 

Knowing many of these kinds of visiting professors in real life, such hook-up I find hard to believe in (just like the Tulane English professor in Treme was a terrible mistake -- universities had changed so much since the long past David Simon & Co. had attended them).  I don’t believe for a second, nor can I believe such a figure would immediately single out Mare as the woman he wanted to go home with from that bar, unless deep, nefarious plotting.   OTOH, the gender-reversal in the hook-up aftermath, with Mare immediately dressing to go to her own home, telling him it’s a one-off, a nice one, but that’s all she can do, is kind of fun, and convincing, but one is so aware why the writers made this choice in These Times.

It wasn't until the close to the close of the first ep I had a good idea who was going to be the victim. 

Spoiler

Was one of her eyebrows very neatly cut out, or was it sticky with blood?  If it was cut out, that says something about the killer.

But the point of the story isn't so much the victim, but the town, a place where this can happen. Which is interesting in itself, since unlike in many like circumstances, it is the outsider who is initially blamed/suspected.  But this first episode has set us up with a whole cast of possibilities out of the residents, who all know each other, and go back forever.  It's the town that gets investigated, and they are making this interesting, i.e. solid, with roots and space both.

So far, the reviewers are all giving it very high marks, even saying it is the first drama of 2021 that is first class.

 

[DMC]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

And then, because I've managed to never actually see what's widely considered one of the greatest films of its genre ever made, I watched Rosemary's Baby. My goodness. Can't believe it took so long to see it.

I see on Drudge that Polanski is apparently making another movie and Mia Farrow may be involved, and then I see this.  Coincidence or conspiracy?

[DireWolfSpirit]

I'm working on through the 4 new Handmaid Tales on Hulu.

[Ran]

5 minutes ago, DMC said:

I see on Drudge that Polanski is apparently making another movie and Mia Farrow may be involved, and then I see this.  Coincidence or conspiracy?

Hah. Coincidence. I had no idea. I am very doubtful of that rumour, though. Is Drudge the source or is it being reported elsewhere?

[polishgenius]

9 minutes ago, DMC said:

I see on Drudge that Polanski is apparently making another movie and Mia Farrow may be involved, and then I see this.  Coincidence or conspiracy?

All things considered I find it hard to believe that Mia Farrow would work with Roman Polanski and if she did it would be grotesquely hypocritical. Hope that's not true.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Just now, polishgenius said:

All things considered I find it hard to believe that Mia Farrow would work with Roman Polanski and if she did it would be grotesquely hypocritical. Hope that's not true.

Hard to know where life ends and performance art begins with this twisted family.

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, Ran said:

Is Drudge the source or is it being reported elsewhere?

It's a link elsewhere, as usual.  Just thought it was funny.

[Ran]

23 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

All things considered I find it hard to believe that Mia Farrow would work with Roman Polanski and if she did it would be grotesquely hypocritical. Hope that's not true.

I mean, she has been grossly hypocritical in the past on this point. I expect she wouldn't do it because of the muddle it would make with her accusations against Woody Allen, not because she's changed her mind on defending Polanski as she has in the past.

20 minutes ago, DMC said:

It's a link elsewhere, as usual.  Just thought it was funny.

It is a funny coincidence, yeah. It just showed up Netflix here yesterday, so took my chance.

Rosemary's Baby is the best thing Mia Farrow's been in, excepting possibly her work in Allen's films like Husbands and Wives and Hannah and Her Sisters.  She pulled off that role of ingénue incredibly well, helped by how delicate and fragile she could seem. John Cassavetes was an interesting choice for her husband, because he gave a very different impression than what Robert Redford (the initial star they wanted) would have made, I think, but in a good way -- the way he could convey qualities that suggested a certain sense of guilt, the perpetual hint of something dark lurking in his manners, without being explicit was just right and slowly contributed the unease. Polanski's direction was genuinely superlative -- even the most common action could take on a sinister quality, the way he framed it and used the score to emphasize it. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Thanks @Veltigar, McDonald & Dobbs was a good rec for an enjoyable British detective show, although there’s only two episodes available on BritBox.  It’s pretty light but the humor and dialogue are good, especially between the odd-couple detectives.  The villains are excessively theatrical but in a self-aware way to set up all the fun.  I thought the addicted-to-dependency plot was even better than the King Lear plot.  I hope they make more.

We’ve started Informer, another British show on Amazon.  This is grittier but quite good so far.

[Werthead]

Making my way through Justified for the first time. I though the first season started a little shaky but rapidly improved and by the end it was absolutely outstanding. The switch of focus at the start of Season 2 was extremely jarring - especially because it felt like they decided to throw out the story the S1 finale was setting up, wrote those events out with absurd alacrity and then moved on - but it feels like it's finding its feet again a few episodes in.

Also making my way through Modern Family (after everyone going on about it in the WandaVision thread) and, having reached the middle of Season 8, the show seems to be absolutely imploding. Like, it started running out of ideas in Season 6 and in Season 7 it was kind of careening back and forth from watchably fun to actually awful, but now it's just gone nuts (they've parachuted in Nathan Fillion to try to save it, but it's not really working). I do want to find out what happens to the characters at the end, but I'm not sure if I can get through another three and a half seasons (JFC) of this quality level (and it was never a top-tier comedy in the first place).

I stalled out on The Terror with two episodes to go. Yikes, that was so brilliant for the first 3-4 episodes then completely lost the plot. Hideously awful pacing problems (to be fair, partially inherited from the novel). This should have been six episodes, max.

[mormont]

I finished up Shadow and Bone, which I actually enjoyed a lot. There were some changes from the book that I'm not sure worked but others that were eminently sensible. There are other criticisms one could make but the cast are almost all pretty amazing and the whole things sweeps along nicely so I didn't have time to ponder any bad decisions along the way.

Going back to my rewatch of Farscape now. I do still love that series.

[Veltigar]

I finished the fourth season of Breaking Bad yesterday and I must say, that final stretch of episodes finally reached the benchmark I expect from one of the reportedly greatest series ever. This is definitely my favorite season with quite a large margin. 

My favorite episode of this season (and definitely of the entire series so far) was the eight episode which is called "Hermanos" followed by the finale. I'll have to go in a bit in spoiler territory here, but I immediately see problems for season 5

Spoiler

It's not a coincidence that episode 8 and 13 were my favorite episodes, both focused heavily on Gustavo Fring who is by far the coolest character to come out of Breaking Bad. I finally get why Giancarlo Esposito is now being cast as a villain in everything from The Boys to The Mandalorian and even Harley Quin

I don't know whether people have other stuff with him to recommend, but I'd be curious to see the guy stretch his acting muscles outside of the villain persona he has down to a T. 

This entire thing makes me very curious about his future on The Boys in particular. The Mandalorian doesn't have the writing to pull of a great villain, but his Stan Edgar in The Boys really feels like a more suave version of Gustavo Fring.

He'll leave a great hole in the center of the show. I get they want to focus more on Walter White's terribleness with him having poisoned a child and killed so many people by now, but setting up a credible villain (even if they have 16 episodes for it) that is able to follow in the footsteps of Gustavo Fring... That's going to be difficult. 

Does Gus Fring return in Better Call Saul? Because that would be a huge draw for me.

 

13 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Thanks @Veltigar, McDonald & Dobbs was a good rec for an enjoyable British detective show, although there’s only two episodes available on BritBox.  It’s pretty light but the humor and dialogue are good, especially between the odd-couple detectives.  The villains are excessively theatrical but in a self-aware way to set up all the fun.  I thought the addicted-to-dependency plot was even better than the King Lear plot.  I hope they make more.

Glad you enjoyed it! There are six episodes in total and I thought the second season was even better than the first. I hope they'll continue on this path.

[3CityApache]

1 hour ago, Veltigar said:

 

  Hide contents

Does Gus Fring return in Better Call Saul? Because that would be a huge draw for me.

 

He does. And yes, your concerns for season 5 are fully... justified.

[Heartofice]

Mention of The Terror up thread, have to say it’s a show I came away loving but found myself struggling to pay attention to during its middle episodes. It does drag quite a bit there and I think it’s because I didn’t really know what I was watching. At first it felt like it was a horror, especially with the title, but then it lost those elements and seemed to be more historical drama.

The last couple of episodes are dramatic and brilliant, which is why I’d recommend that season to people, obviously outside of some great performances.

Other than that, finally getting up to date on Better Call Saul. I’ve always had mixed feelings on the show, at its best it’s powerful and emotional and does all the things that Breaking Bad does, but often does it even better. However it slides over into indulgence and always feels like it can take 30mins to say something instead of 5. 
This last season though has me hooked again, especially as it catches up more with BB , with Fring involved more. It’s a great show and might be better than BB

[Veltigar]

1 hour ago, 3CityApache said:

He does. And yes, your concerns for season 5 are fully... justified.

Ah, that's good to hear. I'll be taking a bit of a break from the world of Breaking Bad after I finish season 5, but I think the promise of more of that character will definitely bring me back to Better call Saul (especially since Saul is another character I have come to appreciate, so good to have those back).

I'm a few episodes into season 5 and strangely enough it feels like

Spoiler

the show has a lot more episodes to go than the 16 in season 5. It feels at this point as a sort of place holder season which would end with the next big bad to be revealed. Curious how they'll shift gears on this.

 

36 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Mention of The Terror up thread, have to say it’s a show I came away loving but found myself struggling to pay attention to during its middle episodes. It does drag quite a bit there and I think it’s because I didn’t really know what I was watching. At first it felt like it was a horror, especially with the title, but then it lost those elements and seemed to be more historical drama.

The last couple of episodes are dramatic and brilliant, which is why I’d recommend that season to people, obviously outside of some great performances.

Other than that, finally getting up to date on Better Call Saul. I’ve always had mixed feelings on the show, at its best it’s powerful and emotional and does all the things that Breaking Bad does, but often does it even better. However it slides over into indulgence and always feels like it can take 30mins to say something instead of 5. 
This last season though has me hooked again, especially as it catches up more with BB , with Fring involved more. It’s a great show and might be better than BB

Agreed on The Terror, are they already on a third season? I remember the second one being a major letdown quality wise. Now that's always the risk with anthologies I guess.

Curious about Better Call Saul, but I think I'll go for Justified first.