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Watch, Watching, Watch -- Why do movies have to end so soon?


TheLastWolf

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Murderville on Netflix - quite enjoyed it. It’s odd comparing it to the British version because it feels much closer to a regular sitcom, the laughs are usually coming from the actual improvisations rather than the detective baiting the guests. Ken Jeong was the only one corpsing, which iirc would happen much more in the British version (Arnett was also more straight faced than Tom Davis, who plays the detective in the British version). Conan is so good at improvising you couldn’t even tell it wasn’t a script, although Annie Murphy seemed like she had never played a game in her life.

They also changed the premise, the British show is Murder in Successville and they had non comic celebrities trying to crack the case while comedians played weird versions of themselves or other famous people in this alternative crime world. Not including that pretty much robs it of the satire element but I suppose it’s not much use to a global Netflix.

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I would rate Season 2 of the Wire clearly behind 1/3/4, but still well ahead of 5.  Frank Sabotka is a great character and a great performance.  It introduces The Greek and his gang, who are the true villains of the show (although they can avoid getting their hands dirty most of the time).  Ziggy and Nicky are fine, but not up to the par of the rest of the show. 

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Any you all have thoughts regarding Y, as to why this is so?

 

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“I really loved Y: Last Man personally, I really admired all the work that went into it, I really think Eliza Clark did a great job,” Landgraf said. “But I will tell you, Its audience decline was really, really, really steep and ultimately that is what made us go in that direction.  [meaning cancellation even before season one completed its run on Hulu]

 

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Second season of Space Force drops today and is supposedly a huge improvement over the first. The fourth and penultimate season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel drops today as well.

5 hours ago, Zorral said:

Any you all have thoughts regarding Y, as to why this is so?

To be honest, I think it was the unapologetically brutal tone of the first episode. It was extremely harsh, with 50% of people dying on-screen (including little kids) and it was quite unpleasant even for normal times, but even moreso in a pandemic, as compared to Station Eleven finding a way of making its similar apparent weakness into a virtue, although that show is also better-written, better-paced and better-acted, with better vfx, and just better across the board). Y's ostensible protagonist is also a total tool in the comics but Vaughn writes him as an arsehole but an interesting arsehole; in the TV show he's written as such an irredeemable prick that frankly the total extinction of humanity might be worth it to get rid of him.

Y: The Last Man eventually gets good in the last 2-3 episodes, once they bring on board the deranged scientist and Agent 355 really becomes the show's MVP, and Yorick becomes somewhat tolerable, but it's waaaay too little too late.

I think Y's lasting achievement will be its very successful implementation of a CGI monkey character which is almost 100% convincing. Which isn't much, but better than nothing.

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Because I finished Inventing Anna (which I really liked, though I disliked almost all of the principal figures), and there's nothing compelling right now, I began watching season 3 of Killing Eve.  Which, weirdly, I'm enjoying (three episodes in) for no reason I can point to at all. It makes no sense whatsoever.  It must be this time of year and covid or something, but evidently it must be its sheer makes no sense whatsoever that I'm enjoying?  As well as Jodie Comer's sociopathic grin?  Which comes so often? Especially after dumping a baby in a Parisian garbage bin, whose mother she had whimsically killed?  Being given a new handler who is Succession's Shiv and Co.'s demented mom (Harriet Walter)? And ya, I do really like Sandra Oh's hair as much as Villanelle does. Plus the great plus that Carolyn's character (Fiona Shaw) is so funny, and even funnier with demure daughter played by Gemma Whelan, while mom holds meetings in the bathtub and beats down the guys.

I still have no idea at all why this psychopathic killer has the same name as this old and strict poetic form.

But you see how many terrific female actors we get to enjoy in this show, so whether the show itself makes any sense or not, there's plenty of value provided. At least at This Time.  Ha!  :D  It is really funny, in its psychopathic way. Still laughing at the matter-of-fact manner in which Villanelle picks up the crying baby, carries him over to the garbage bin, comes back to the cafe table, while her handler doesn't even comment.

 

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Last night I went to catch the live broadcast of La Belle Sauvage, the Bridge Theatre's adaptation of Pullman's novel. Really impressed. When one of the talking heads in the trailer at the start said there'd be lots of video, I was worried because I generally hate it when plays lean on video. It's the opposite of what I want from live shows. But here it was magical - digital projects were used to create the Thames and the flood. And apart from the visual feast, it was a clever adaptation as well. When reading the book, I never thought much about how Malcolm might come across to other people. Here he's played by an adult actor as an extremely well-fed, endlessly enthusiastic twelve-year-old nicknamed the prof with a West-Country-like accent. Bright, gauche, as friendly as a spaniel puppy, and very loud. 

A couple of downsides: the show really went for laughs a lot, and that was great at the start, but I think it didn't cope as well with the building pressure and danger, or with the dreamy presence of the secret commonwealth, of supernatural beings and the unexplained on the edge of existence, which the book conjured so fabulously. Mrs Coulter (Ayesha Dharker) needed to be more beguiling, especially in the introductory scene in the school. Gerard is given several scenes that he doesn't have in the book — chatting up Alice, asking Lord Nugent for a job, talking to Malcolm, which seemed in character, but at the same time took away some of the sense of distant volatile adult menace. 

A lot was cut, but even with the cuts, some scenes felt rushed, as if they were chasing the next laugh or the next event. 

The best moment came in the first act when a character went to lift baby Lyra out of a crib. This being theatre, everyone was expecting a doll wrapped in blankets. I definitely was. But it was a real baby. That doesn't seem much to people who aren't theatre fans, but for anyone who is, it's a big thing. The theatre apparently has about ten babies on a rota. Enough to form a small baby actors' union. When Malcolm held her up briefly in the centre of the stage, you could feel as the audience all held their breath at once. 

Anyway, if you live near London, I do recommend trying to see it before it closes. It was amazing on screen, and would be even better watched live on stage in a real theatre. 

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On 2/17/2022 at 9:12 AM, Whiskeyjack said:

Peacemaker finale was great.

Sad its over, but so happy it was renewed for another season.

It was really great. The diarrhea gag alone was stupid funny. It's remarkable to me how funny John Cena can be.

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I really hope the Snyder-based DCEU limps along just because of James Gunn. They're doing more Peacemaker and he claimed another Suicide Squad member would get a show (please be weasel!) 

Like don't do any more Justice League movies, but keep the universe alive where they're out there as kinda a joke. 

Also I'm a Marvel guy but someone pointed out that Peacemaker was better than any of their Disney+ shows so far and yeah, can't argue. I really liked WandaVision but it failed to stick the landing. 

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15 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Just noticed that. Only one episode a week though. Amazon don't do a good job at all of keeping me updated on new shit. 

Two episodes each week actually...I think someone said the first two, at least, run around 50 minutes also...not sure if that was standard for the other seasons...

That said, I have to wait until Sunday at least and it's killing me.  Been waiting on this show to return...

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7 hours ago, RumHam said:

Like don't do any more Justice League movies, but keep the universe alive where they're out there as kinda a joke.

Well, we saw how WW84 turned out and the brains at WB insist the 2017 film is canon, so it looks like they're one step ahead of you. Slow clap.

I liked TSS well enough on my first go around but found it a bit boring when I saw it a few months later. I'll get around to Peacemaker eventually. 

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On 2/17/2022 at 12:12 PM, Whiskeyjack said:

Peacemaker finale was great.

Sad its over, but so happy it was renewed for another season.

Just finished Peacemaker as well. As a whole it was better than I expected, had to be talked into watching it. Kind of a less dramatic and more humorous version of The Boys IMO. I'll definitely watch another season.

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