Watch, Watching, Watch -- Keep the change you filthy animal!

[Teng Ai Hui]

Over the weekend, I binge-watched The Witcher, season 1.  It was fun to watch, but it did have some flaws.  For example, the chemistry between Geralt and Yennefer was less believeable than that between between Geralt and Jaskier.  Yennefer carried the final episode, yet that was overshadowed by the silliness of the final scene.  Also, Mousesack is a horrible name for a fantasy character.  

Anyway, I'm still looking forward to starting season 2.  I'm really hoping for a "previously on..." montage to start episode 1 narrated by Alexander Dreymon with the last line being "Destiny Is All."

[Whiskeyjack]

On 12/18/2021 at 11:44 PM, JEORDHl said:

Saw an add somewhere a few days ago, I was bored and something reminded me, so I’m most of the way through the first episode of Station Eleven. Going in mostly blind, but one of the writers was involved with the Leftovers, I think, though I may be cross referencing.

Anyway.

It’s a pandemic show, clearly, as it starts, meshed with days before, infrequently interspersed with shots of the backgrounds many years later, grown over, half wild. There are sweet moments, the occasional chuckle, and yet it’s making me anxious and sweaty.

Fucking Covid.

Will soldier on.

I watched the first 3 episodes and think its excellent. 

Definitely has the same tone as The Leftovers, which is one of my favorite shows ever.  So no surprise that the showrunner worked on that as well.

I keep thinking about the recurring line "I remember damage."  Really struck a chord with me.

[Zorral]

Things one wants to watch, or at least want to try watching, have blossomed over the last couple of weeks.  Which the raging surge of the pandemic in full tide is most fortunate.  This is the day before the shortest day of the year, perfect for watching The Witcher, doncha think?  

[aceluby]

On 12/18/2021 at 11:44 PM, JEORDHl said:

Saw an add somewhere a few days ago, I was bored and something reminded me, so I’m most of the way through the first episode of Station Eleven. Going in mostly blind, but one of the writers was involved with the Leftovers, I think, though I may be cross referencing.

Anyway.

It’s a pandemic show, clearly, as it starts, meshed with days before, infrequently interspersed with shots of the backgrounds many years later, grown over, half wild. There are sweet moments, the occasional chuckle, and yet it’s making me anxious and sweaty.

Fucking Covid.

Will soldier on.

What's this on?!?!?  It's one of my favorite books

[Filippa Eilhart]

30 minutes ago, Teng Ai Hui said:

Also, Mousesack is a horrible name for a fantasy character.

it’s one of those things that doesn’t translate well. In Polish it’s a play on traditional Slavic names.

[RumHam]

1 minute ago, aceluby said:

What's this on?!?!?  It's one of my favorite books

HBO Max

[Veltigar]

Went to see the new Spiderman film over the weekend. I'll go on record to say that I never much cared for Spiderman. I know he's one of the most recognizable superhero characters, but even by mytepid appreciation of the superhero genre, he usually doesn't interest me.

Take it as high praise then, when I say this latest film is a must see in theatre. There were some dipshits in the audience screaming at every major turn of the plot (terribly annoying in a civilzed place, especially at an hour when children should already be asleep) but even then it was one of the most enjoyable times I had in the theatre all year (and this has been an amazing year for film in general, best since 2014 in my book).

I'm now even planning to watch the first Tom Holland Spiderman film as I never could be arsed to watch it before (same for the Andrew Garfield ones). To say what I liked would be very spoilery so

Spoiler

This film did fan service incredibly well. From the two others fawning about Toby Maguires spiderwrists, to Andrew Garfield saving MJ in a way that he couldn't do in his universe, to Doc Oc rallying to their cause and Toby Maguire saving the Green Goblin. Well done, even my black heart couldn't help but cheer for those moments. 

Even more remarjkably, this film actually managed to make me give a shit about the "great responsibility" goodbye speech. I have always ridiculed that origin story because it's such an excruciatingly boring cliche, but here they did something very fresh with it and made it a perfect opportunity to both raise the stakes and further the personal growth of Peter Parker.

I also loved how they got the best villains from the older Spiderman's all back. Doc Oc was essential and it's so great to see more of Alfred Molina (he was the best thing abou the Rami trilogy), but to also get the Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin back (the second best thing about the original trilogy) was great.

Now the film itself isn't perfect as I did feel that some characters were not as well thought out

Spoiler

I feel like Doc Oc and the Green Goblin made a lot of sense, but the lizzard was there just as windowdressing. Elektro and Sandman on the other hand I found pretty nonsensical in the way they behaved. This was particularly obious with Sandman, who turned villainous for no sensible reason (I think that if they wanted him to be antagonistic, it would have been far wiser if he had beenthe one going after MJ and Ned instead of the lizard in order to push that button). With Elektro I could buy the reason why he wanted to stay in Hollandverse, but the way he behaved after he was "cured" was odd. It felt like Spiderman had just beat him at a low-stakes game of hoops instead of taking his Godlike powers away.

And there were the plotholes which were bigger than usual, but all in all they didn't distract from the experience for me.

[Veltigar]

EDIT: Double post

[RhaenysBee]

I watched that… but what’s it called? The Boy Called Christmas. It’s the worst. I don’t know if it’s because I’m an adult but the story’s hemorrhaging. Not five consecutive minutes of it make any sense at any point. The actor playing the boy is absolutely ghastly and way too old to be authentic to his character’s childlike naivety. The older cast is trying to do what they can but there’s only so much to work with. The underlying theme is basically that hardship and emotional turmoil in life is natural and it’s all bearable as long as you have a toy to give you hope. The characters are insufferable, there isn’t humor, there isn’t anything cute, the visuals are infantile and hardly an aesthetic experience (in contrast the nutcracker film with Keira Knightly and Mackenzie Foy a couple years ago was at least beautiful. That story was insufferable too but at least it was visually stunning). I suppose I hope the children it was targeted at didn’t hate it. 
 

I also watched Burn that cooking themed film on Netflix. It was kinda boring and paint by numbers, they didn’t leave enough time for the character growth and the resolution to happen, so it felt a bit rushed and sudden, even though the film is super long. Bradley  cooper is hot so there’s that at least.

And I finished the last half season of La Casa de Papel. It was mediocre as was the entire thing from season 3. 

[Ran]

Some rewatching: prompted by Bill Simmons's The Rewatchables podcast I watched Inside Man again, and then just now finished a rewatch of the perfect Out of Sight, a damned fine Soderbergh film adapting an Elmore Leonard novel. George Clooney is at peak charisma, and this is easily Jennifer Lopez's best film role. She had obvious charisma and talent, but it never seemed to amount to much in film outside of this -- bad script choices mostly, I think.

Then some binging: decided to try Lower Decks and after being only faintly amused through most of season 1, the last couple of episodes pick up... and the second season is, to my mind, much stronger, not least because of the introduction of a serialized background story that keeps intruding. 

And then Hacks, which only recently appeared on HBO Max here. Heard good things about it, liked listening to Conan O'Brien's interview with Hannah Einbinder on his podcast, so checked it out. Some genuinely interesting and funny stuff, but it felt to me like it started strong and then got wobblier as it progressed. I'm not sure they needed to flesh out some of the secondary characters. Finished pretty well, though.

Like everyone else watching it, almost done with The Wheel of Time, which I've found deeply mediocre and not a well-considered show in terms of adaptation choices. I think I'm done after the season finale.

And we finished The Great, which has been hilarious and wonderful, especially when Gillian Anderson joins the show as a guest for several episodes. As GRRM has remarked, it's insanely good, wears its many flagrant diversions from history on its sleeve, and is rather amazingly bawdy while featuring a lot less nudity than most shows that indulge such a focus on sex as this show does. Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning are terrific, as are the rest of the supporting cast. 

 

[Tyria]

The Great is an amazing show. I said in the last thread that I put it on thinking it was an historical drama. Obviously, I was wrong, and happily so! The second season was a riot. So many things...the bowl of wine, velcra, lookalikes and yes Gillian Anderson and so much more. Definitely on the rewatch list! 

Watched the final season of Superstore on the weekend. Another great show. I didn't really care for the Amy and Jonah storyline (I'm meh on that stuff in any show), but everything else was great. The episode with Garrett having to be the one to counter the racist policies and how everyone else reacted was so spot on. I liked how they handled the pandemic too. I think it will hold up in ways that most shows that acknowledged it won't. I always love the scenes where it pans to customers in the background doing weird things throughout the store!

[Annara Snow]

On 12/19/2021 at 6:44 AM, JEORDHl said:

Saw an add somewhere a few days ago, I was bored and something reminded me, so I’m most of the way through the first episode of Station Eleven. Going in mostly blind, but one of the writers was involved with the Leftovers, I think, though I may be cross referencing.

Anyway.

It’s a pandemic show, clearly, as it starts, meshed with days before, infrequently interspersed with shots of the backgrounds many years later, grown over, half wild. There are sweet moments, the occasional chuckle, and yet it’s making me anxious and sweaty.

Fucking Covid.

Will soldier on.

I haven't read the book, but the subject matter interested me (yes, instead of being turned off), and it has Mackenzie Davis, who's become one of my favorite actresses since I binged Halt and Catch Fire this year and then went on to watch a bunch of her other roles... 

and I loved the first 3 episodes. Especially episode 3. 

It's really a very, very different take on a post-apocalyptic story, and I see the similarity with The Leftovers. I love the fact that this show is focused on the connections between people - miles away from the usual grimdark "it's a dog eat dog world, people are awful and everything sucks, here's another group of terrible people you'll meet who'll try to kill and rob/eat you" post-apocalyptic shows we're used to.

Anyway, I just finished Hellbound season 1 and loved it. Definitely in my top 5 best shows I've seen this year.
I see that the media arecomparing it to Squid Game, and of course they would, because they're both Korean and on Netflix and the media are fond of lazy comparisons, but the much more obvious comparisons are to Midnight Mass and even, again, to The Leftovers (that comparison was made in an article with a list of best shows of the year, and it's what made me want to binge it). The latter because, at least so far, the show is not about explaining a strange supernatural event but about how people/the society reacts to it. And the former because of the thematic similarities - the horror really comes from religious extremism taking over entire communities (a small one in MM, the society at large in Hellbound).
And although

Spoiler

he was only in the first half of the season

I think Yoo Ah-in gave one of the best performances of the year and made Chairman Yeong the creepiest character I've seen on TV all year. Yes, even creepier than Bev Keane, although Bev is a more despicable person.

I was glad to see that the ending was not predictable and I wonder what season 2 will bring and how it will follow up the cliffhanger (Surely there will be a season 2? The show seems to be popular enough?)

 I still think Yoo Ah-in gave one of the best performances of the year and made Chairman Yeong the creepiest characte I've seen on TV all year. Yes. even creepier than Bev Keane, although Bev is a more despicable person.

[Annara Snow]

On 12/17/2021 at 6:44 AM, Teng Ai Hui said:

I started watching a docu-series called The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek.  It made me want to watch ST:TOS, which I had never seen before.  I’ve watched the first 13 episodes so far, and it’s a little odd at times.  First, it’s a lot more philosophical and a lot less action-packed than I expected.  Second, it seems ahead of its time with its diversity and gender equality.  Yet, at the same time, many episodes have a hot, scantily-clad female side character for the male viewers to ogle and for Capt Kirk to kiss.  Third, there’s a main character, Yeoman Janice Rand (played by Grace Lee Whitney), that I had never heard of before.  Why does she leave after the first half of the first season? 

ETA: After a little online research, I discovered that, according to Roddenberry, she was fired only due to budgetary reasons.

Supposedly. There is a much darker story behind that, which Whitney wrote about in her book. It's about an executive whose name she never reveals sexually harassing her and eventually assaulting her when he was really drunk. 

[JGP]

57 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

I haven't read the book, but the subject matter interested me (yes, instead of being turned off), and it has Mackenzie Davis, who's become one of my favorite actresses since I binged Halt and Catch Fire this year and then went on to watch a bunch of her other roles... 

and I loved the first 3 episodes. Especially episode 3. 

It's really a very, very different take on a post-apocalyptic story, and I see the similarity with The Leftovers. I love the fact that this show is focused on the connections between people - miles away from the usual grimdark "it's a dog eat dog world, people are awful and everything sucks, here's another group of terrible people you'll meet who'll try to kill and rob/eat you" post-apocalyptic shows we're used to.

on TV all year. Yes. even creepier than Bev Keane, although Bev is a more despicable person.

 

I've also finished the first 3 episodes, and agree with you. Looking forward to seeing how Kirsten precisely arrived where E3 left off, I mean, thus far she seems like the main character yet she's the first we've seen do a bad thing.  

[RhaenysBee]

I watched Spider-Man Far From Home last night. I couldn’t tell you went on for 2 hours in that film, I zoned out after the first 45 minutes and gave up in another 45 minutes. Spider-Man wanted a girlfriend and went on a school trip and there was a fake monster threatening the world and an ex-employee who created the illusion to get rich and famous. Spider-Man realized this in time and I’m sure it all worked out in the end, but I couldn’t tell you how and I’m not particularly interested either. Superhero films are still not my cup of tea. 

[3CityApache]

On 12/20/2021 at 10:05 PM, Teng Ai Hui said:

Also, Mousesack is a horrible name for a fantasy character.  

It's a 1:1 translation and believe me, it sounds way better in Polish original - Myszowór.

Edit. Of, Filippa has already beaten me to it.

[Veltigar]

I watched Spiderman Homecoming for the first time yesterday. I don't think it measures up to the two other installments, but I had a good time overall. The humor was on point, the villain was not terrible and I liked that it wasn't a global threat that needed to be stopped for once. The appearances of other MCU characters was also well handled, especially the Iron Man/Peter Parker dynamic which holds surprising emotional weight.

Much of what was good about it, came from the fact that it was not really a superhero film. Not sure whether this is the film that started it all, but I feel like a lot of the better superhero movies lately have been the ones that borrow very liberally from other (better) genres. Suicide Squad from war/action, this from high-school films, Black Widow from spy movies, Shang-Chi Kung Fu. The latest Spider-man might be one of the few exceptions that bucks the trend (although that is certainly indebted to sci-fi).

 

[Annara Snow]

9 hours ago, Veltigar said:

I watched Spiderman Homecoming for the first time yesterday. I don't think it measures up to the two other installments, but I had a good time overall. The humor was on point, the villain was not terrible and I liked that it wasn't a global threat that needed to be stopped for once. The appearances of other MCU characters was also well handled, especially the Iron Man/Peter Parker dynamic which holds surprising emotional weight.

Much of what was good about it, came from the fact that it was not really a superhero film. Not sure whether this is the film that started it all, but I feel like a lot of the better superhero movies lately have been the ones that borrow very liberally from other (better) genres. Suicide Squad from war/action, this from high-school films, Black Widow from spy movies, Shang-Chi Kung Fu. The latest Spider-man might be one of the few exceptions that bucks the trend (although that is certainly indebted to sci-fi).

 

Not terrible? The Vulture was awesome! The best MCU movie villain in my opinion. (Killmonger is also there, Loki was cool but is way better when he's an anti-hero... and Thanos sucks, because his motivation and plan is idiotic but no one ever says that in canon.)

It sure didn't start it. The First Avengers was a (WW2) war movie, The Winter Soldier was a political thriller in the vein of the 1970s political thrilles like The Three Days of Condor (and they paid an homage to them additionally by casting Robert Redford), Ant Man was a heist movie.

[Veltigar]

Just came back from Retfærdighedens ryttere (English title: Riders of Justice, 2020). It just got a release in theatres here and as we're about to close down all cinema's due to our perfidious Chinese friend, I thought it essential to go and savor the opportunity of Mads Mikkelsen playing the lead in this John Wick parody.

It got excellent reviews and they were well deserved. This is the type of film I want to see more. Open about its inspirations, but with the courage and dexterity to put its own spin on things. The film brought this unique mixture of action and dark comedy, I was simply riveted.

The violence in this film hits hard, all the jokes land for me (this film twists and turns in ways you would not expect humorwise) and to top it all off it's basically a Christmas movie about the power of friendship. It shouldn't work, but it does and its glorious.

TLDR: It has Mads Mikkelsen, you should watch this.

14 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

Not terrible? The Vulture was awesome! The best MCU movie villain in my opinion.

He was alright. Killmonger in particular was much better in my opinion. His "little guy tired of not getting a break" was pretty phony. He had no qualms about releasing dangerous weapons in communities where he had moved himself out of with his dirty money, so the faux champion of the people act was quite lame and he didn't really impact Peter himself all that much.

Killmonger on the other hand  

Spoiler

basically won the intellectual argument with Black Panther, calling out the hypocrisy of Wakanda and leading to profound change. 

 

22 minutes ago, Annara Snow said:

It sure didn't start it. The First Avengers was a (WW2) war movie, The Winter Soldier was a political thriller in the vein of the 1970s political thrilles like The Three Days of Condor (and they paid an homage to them additionally by casting Robert Redford), Ant Man was a heist movie.

Ah yes, I erased most of those from my mind. They certainly got a lot better at it though XD

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

TLDR: It has Mads Mikkelsen, you should watch this.

This should be a universal rule. I'll watch just about anything he's in. I don't think his status as best Bond Villain will ever be touched. 

Michael B. Jordan has argued, recently and IIRC in the past that Killmonger is not a villain, and TBH I actually agree. Black Panther has a MLK vs. Malcom X element to it.