Watch Watched Watching: May The Fourth be with you!

[RumHam]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Finished Season 4 of Justified. I get why it ranks on top, definitely the best season so far and that is saying something. Overall, I think it rises so high because it has a pretty enjoyable narrative and doesn't focus on any relationship bullshit which is the weakest part of the show. 

The only thing I would change is Timothy Olyphant's hair. He's supposed to be a cowboy not a hippie 

Season four was great but I would change the answer to the whole season long mystery. 

I get that Jim Beaver is awesome, but really Shelby was Drew? Would you really run for Sherriff in his situation? What if his ex-wife saw a campaign poster or something? Why was he a greeter at wallmart prior to Boyd recruiting him to run? I just remember thinking the whole thing was unnecessarily convoluted and twisty. 

Pretty sure that's also the season they introduce the Harlan illuminati, too.  

You should prepare your self for the fact that season five is the weakest. I'm not sure if it's because Yost started working on The Americans or because they cast that moron Rapaport in a major role. I know one actor signed up to play a bad guy all season and then quit and they had to kill him off prematurely. 

It's not horrible or anything but a noticeable step down. 

 

[Cas Stark]

It's getting mediocre reviews, but I'm going to watch Halston this weekend.

[DMC]

5 hours ago, RumHam said:

Spoiler

Why was he a greeter at wallmart prior to Boyd recruiting him to run?

 

Spoiler

Well, remember he got fired from his security job at the mining company the previous season.  I don't think it's that implausible.  I agree running for sheriff is a really stupid idea, but considering they emphasize that barely anyone can recognize him anymore (including, kind of, his ex-wife), I guess it's not too egregious.

 

5 hours ago, RumHam said:

Spoiler

I know one actor signed up to play a bad guy all season and then quit and they had to kill him off prematurely. 

 

Spoiler

Really?  Who?  Trying to think.  They killed off the Haitian really early in the season I guess.  In terms of big name/recognizable actors, I could see Roscoe (Eugene Young) and Jay (Avon Barksdale), but they're around until pretty late in the season anyway.

Anyway, yeah, Season 5 is the worst season by far.

 

[RedEyedGhost]

11 minutes ago, DMC said:

 

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Really?  Who?  Trying to think.  They killed off the Haitian really early in the season I guess.  In terms of big name/recognizable actors, I could see Roscoe (Eugene Young) and Jay (Avon Barksdale), but they're around until pretty late in the season anyway.

Anyway, yeah, Season 5 is the worst season by far.

 

Justified season 5

Edi Gathegi (Jean Baptiste) is the one that left prematurely (and was by far the most interesting character from Daryl's crew).  Looking at his imdb credits, he was in the Twilight movies, so I guess that would qualify him as a big name to some (

X-Men: First Class as well).

[DMC]

12 minutes ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Justified season 5

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Edi Gathegi (Jean Baptiste) is the one that left prematurely (and was by far the most interesting character from Daryl's crew).  Looking at his imdb credits, he was in the Twilight movies, so I guess that would qualify him as a big name to some (

X-Men: First Class as well).

 

Spoiler

Ah.  Yeah, that'd be the Haitian (couldn't remember the character's actual name).  Makes sense, his death is pretty damn random.  Wouldn't think of him as a "big name" though - although I do remember him as Darwin in first class.  That was a pretty interesting superpower.

 

[Zorral]

12 hours ago, Veltigar said:

The only thing I would change is Timothy Olyphant's hair. He's supposed to be a cowboy not a hippie 

The thing is, Veltigar, since the cowboys-stomps-rednecks-southern good 'ole boys discovered the joys of getting high on weed back the end of the 1960's, they are the ones with long hair ever since.  Raylan is as southern as you kin git. Look at the photos of country western singers, and those of the redneck rocker bands, etc.

 

[RumHam]

35 minutes ago, DMC said:

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Ah.  Yeah, that'd be the Haitian (couldn't remember the character's actual name).  Makes sense, his death is pretty damn random.  Wouldn't think of him as a "big name" though - although I do remember him as Darwin in first class.  That was a pretty interesting superpower.

 

I never said it was a big name?

[kairparavel]

I am a few episodes into the first season of Pose, and the category is Excellence in Writing and Performance. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

On 5/13/2021 at 5:19 PM, RedEyedGhost said:

LA Confidential is a top 10 movie for me.  

I've never seen this one before. So let's change that.

[Heartofice]

Finished season one of The Wilds. I wasn't going to continue but for some reason I ploughed through. It did improve I will give it that. I was initially put off by the format of the show which really bugged me. I didn't think I could stomach having to do the whole 'each episode is a different backstory' thing, and really I think the shows biggest problem is how it is structured. 

It uses its jumping time structure to tell the audience about it's characters but it all feels quite contrived. Those interview segments where they get the characters to describe what happened on the island is such a weak device that they might as well have used a voice over. The backstory segments were also often the weakest parts and I mostly couldn't wait for them to end. 

But I will say that the actresses on the show are on the whole very good and managed to elevate to some weak writing to a better place. And I stuck through to the end for one reason or another.

I did also enjoy that the main villain of the show is a deranged feminist hell bent on ending the patriarchy. It's quite unusual for that idea to be displayed in a negative light so that was at least different.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Love Death + robots S2: Brilliant. Amazing the amount of world building they can do with so little time. Top shelf production values. It looks better than the visual effects in many feature films. This is how it's done.

Woman in the Window: Not my usual thing but I thought I'd give it try. I really enjoyed it. I have no idea why critics are so negative about this film. I'd have thought reviews would range from "meh" to "very good", but some are calling it "terrible". One reviewer said it reminded them too much of Girl on the Train, but I haven't seen that so I get to be more objective I guess. 

Several twists that were properly well done. Kept my attention all the way through.  Adams was spectacular.

[Veltigar]

18 hours ago, RumHam said:

Season four was great but I would change the answer to the whole season long mystery. 

 

  Hide contents

I get that Jim Beaver is awesome, but really Shelby was Drew? Would you really run for Sherriff in his situation? What if his ex-wife saw a campaign poster or something? Why was he a greeter at wallmart prior to Boyd recruiting him to run? I just remember thinking the whole thing was unnecessarily convoluted and twisty. 

Pretty sure that's also the season they introduce the Harlan illuminati, too.  

You should prepare your self for the fact that season five is the weakest. I'm not sure if it's because Yost started working on The Americans or because they cast that moron Rapaport in a major role. I know one actor signed up to play a bad guy all season and then quit and they had to kill him off prematurely. 

It's not horrible or anything but a noticeable step down. 

 

I feel like @DMC said it all in his rebuttal to the central mystery. It's definitely not that plausible, but given all the other crazy stuff that happens in the series (like the insanely high body count) I can hand wave it away long enough to enjoy it.

You do have a point which was a weakness I didn't pick up on

Spoiler

The Harlan illuminati is a really good name for the chumps they introduced in season 4. I could kind of hand-wave it away because this show usually knows not to dwell on certain things for a long time (+ the character that introduced them into the illuminati world was a furry shot by Ellen May earlier on, you just gotta love that XD). I'm already tired of their bullshit in season 5 and it feels like that's a plot element that is going to bite this show in the ass if they continue with it long enough.

It reminds me a bit of the diminishing returns to world-building in the John Wick verse. In the first world the light touch look into the world of the assassins is interesting, but from 2 onwards I lost all my interest in the world behind it.

I'm about 10 episodes into season 5 and I have to admit I expected it to be worse. As you say, it isn't bad but it's just ever-so slightly off I suppose. Part of that is definitely down to Rapaport. I'm still not sure whether the man is supposed to be a clown or a powerful criminal, but I believe that ambiguity is not what the show is aiming for. He also has the most annoying inbred hillbilly accent ever.

That being said, at least they have Alicia Witt in there. Her inclusion covers a lot of ground in those scenes. The separate Crowder plots are worse though

Spoiler

I'm particularly checked out of Ava's storyline. Never really cared for the character, but her Orange is the New Black stint in this season is something I'd probably skip on rewatches. Same with the Harlan illuminati, although I was rooting for Boyd to dump Ava and go with the Latvian doctor instead.

 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Zorral said:

The thing is, Veltigar, since the cowboys-stomps-rednecks-southern good 'ole boys discovered the joys of getting high on weed back the end of the 1960's, they are the ones with long hair ever since.  Raylan is as southern as you kin git. Look at the photos of country western singers, and those of the redneck rocker bands, etc.

 

Hey, I'm not watching Justified for the realistic portrayal of modern Southern life, I just want to see an updated cowboy fantasy white hat black hat story in a contemporary setting here 

[Annara Snow]

5 hours ago, Heartofice said:

Finished season one of The Wilds. I wasn't going to continue but for some reason I ploughed through. It did improve I will give it that. I was initially put off by the format of the show which really bugged me. I didn't think I could stomach having to do the whole 'each episode is a different backstory' thing, and really I think the shows biggest problem is how it is structured. 

It uses its jumping time structure to tell the audience about it's characters but it all feels quite contrived. Those interview segments where they get the characters to describe what happened on the island is such a weak device that they might as well have used a voice over. The backstory segments were also often the weakest parts and I mostly couldn't wait for them to end. 

But I will say that the actresses on the show are on the whole very good and managed to elevate to some weak writing to a better place. And I stuck through to the end for one reason or another.

I did also enjoy that the main villain of the show is a deranged feminist hell bent on ending the patriarchy. It's quite unusual for that idea to be displayed in a negative light so that was at least different.

It's not unusual for Straw Feminists to be displayed in negative light, that's happened in so many shows and movies. It's also not unusual for people to portray those who use feminism in a misguided way in a negative light. Anyone who is even marginally familiar with social media and today's discourse on social issues would know how many different ideas all get called "feminism", even those that are intrinsically contary to the basic ideas of feminism.  For instance, it's quite astonishing to me that someone is spending time online and has never heard of the debates over TERFs. or White Feminism.

Or, Like, I dunno, a woman with power deceiving and mistreating a bunch of girls in the name of some warped idea of 'ending patriarchy', which is the case in this show.

But it's kind of fun to see a "I don't like this show, but I like that it has a feminist portrayed in a bad light, yay, because that's never ever ever happened" take in the year 2021. It feels like I've time travelled.

[Cas Stark]

5 hours ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Love Death + robots S2: Brilliant. Amazing the amount of world building they can do with so little time. Top shelf production values. It looks better than the visual effects in many feature films. This is how it's done.

Woman in the Window: Not my usual thing but I thought I'd give it try. I really enjoyed it. I have no idea why critics are so negative about this film. I'd have thought reviews would range from "meh" to "very good", but some are calling it "terrible". One reviewer said it reminded them too much of Girl on the Train, but I haven't seen that so I get to be more objective I guess. 

Several twists that were properly well done. Kept my attention all the way through.  Adams was spectacular.

She was.  The movie, not so much.  Hitchcock lite and the characters were all totally superficial.  It was a decent way to waste a couple of hours but beyond that, not much else to recommend it.  I can't say why but I was REALLY irritated by how she failed to give her tenant any privacy over and over again.  

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

25 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

She was.  The movie, not so much.  Hitchcock lite and the characters were all totally superficial.  It was a decent way to waste a couple of hours but beyond that, not much else to recommend it.  I can't say why but I was REALLY irritated by how she failed to give her tenant any privacy over and over again.  

You're not wrong, I just think the reviews are a bit harsh. I can think of a few films I've seen recently that were less engaging and less well made that didn't have a 30% rating from the fruit/vegetable. And I can't imagine thinking it's "terrible".

As far was the characters being superficial, Adams is literally in 100% of the scenes in this film. The focus is her disintegration and paranoia. We only see and learn about the rest of the cast through her. Taking the focus off Adams for a scene here and there might have added something, but I think it mostly worked to keep the audience in the dark about the rest of the cast. Like that Tom Hanks movie from the '80's where those weirdos move into the neighborhood. 

[Veltigar]

Finished season 5. I actually think the last four or so episodes are a considerable step down from what came before and are probably the main reason why everyone seems to have a low opinion of this particular season. 

Everything from 

Spoiler

the dipshit brother falling on his own knife, Art getting shot and so on was just shitty. Worse, those were the good plots in those final episodes. The worst plot was still Ava's, I really don't buy her turning on Boyd. Also the fact that now all of a sudden everyone has a hard on for Boyd at the Marshall's office is just odd. He's been flying above the radar for years, seeing how much Raylan goes on about him. Seems to me Raylan's hunches should be give a little bit more credence to now that we have 5 seasons worth of extremely high profile arrests thanks to him.

 

[Heartofice]

4 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

It's not unusual for Straw Feminists to be displayed in negative light, that's happened in so many shows and movies. It's also not unusual for people to portray those who use feminism in a misguided way in a negative light. Anyone who is even marginally familiar with social media and today's discourse on social issues would know how many different ideas all get called "feminism", even those that are intrinsically contary to the basic ideas of feminism.  For instance, it's quite astonishing to me that someone is spending time online and has never heard of the debates over TERFs. or White Feminism.

Or, Like, I dunno, a woman with power deceiving and mistreating a bunch of girls in the name of some warped idea of 'ending patriarchy', which is the case in this show.

But it's kind of fun to see a "I don't like this show, but I like that it has a feminist portrayed in a bad light, yay, because that's never ever ever happened" take in the year 2021. It feels like I've time travelled.

I can’t off the top of my head think of anything I’ve seen where an extreme feminist is the big bad? Or their motive is removing the patriarchy? Which shows and movies are you talking about?

But yeah, considering most shows of this  type tend to veer into ‘men bad, women strong’ territory I thought it was good that it was more interested in showing people as humans rather than aspirational vessels and cardboard stereotypes 

[Cas Stark]

One episode of Halston, eh, I'll watch to the end, but if I didn't already know a lot of about Halston and that era, not sure I would be engaged, again, more and more typical Netflix, superficial, good production values but its lacking some kind of heart or whatever the writing/direction mechanism is that makes things engaging.  Does anyone who didn't read Vanity Fair in the 90s even know who Babe Paley or a lot of these other people were?  

[Ran]

29 minutes ago, Cas Stark said:

Does anyone who didn't read Vanity Fair in the 90s even know who Babe Paley or a lot of these other people were?  

I mostly do (not Paley, though I should have guessed she was connected to William S. Paley of CBS), and didn't read Vanity Fair very much at that point in time. Mostly through osmosis, I guess -- I mean, a lot of the fashion designer names are still quite known (de la Renta, Dior, Balenciaga, etc.). And Liza of course.

I kind of feel the same. It's light fluff, but handsome production values and Ewan Macgregor is always watchable. I do like a good recreation of a period, and so far this has been very good at evoking the timeperiods it's been set in.

OTOH, I barely knew anything about Halston until about ten years ago. Season 9 of Project Runway had Bert Keeter as a competitor, and he had worked as a designer at Halston Limited back in the 80s.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Shadow Bone is kinda meh.

The most interesting character for me has been the young lady that was Captain on the first voyage across the fold and they instantly killed her off.

Other than that the ninja-ish lady that carries like 30 blades has been cool, but I find myself unable to care about any of the other characters in this mess.