Watch, Watched, Watching: Mr and Mrs Smith and Other Famous Hits

[Ran]

10 minutes ago, Zorral said:

I cannot find goodness in The Last of the Mohicans! 

[HoodedCrow]

My DH really liked “A Knights Tale”. It has a vibe like Bridgerton in the sense of over the top silliness. It is tighter. 

[RhaenysBee]

17 hours ago, Zorral said:

I won't be reading the books, but I do hope there aren't more than four seasons of this, because more will turn this sequined, crystalized froth into the ill-feeling one gets as a kid if one ate too much cotton candy -- which I think is called 'Floss' in the UK?*  I love Shondaland's Scandal for the first seasons, and then quit because it was more of the same that wasn't going anywhere and I was tired of it.

Heresy, doubtless, but as Daphne gives me hives, Eloise prompts to want to tell her to shut up and sit down. She is insufferable in this season.  Hopefully she shall mature some -- Pen's far ahead of her in this -- later? As this is Romance, with happy endings, this isn't too much to hope for.

Season 1 had nothing comparable to that lightening strike of erotic piercing Anthony receives when gifted with flash of Kate's white stocking and garter when she over a fallen tree trunk.  It hit him so hard I thought for minute he would fall next to the tree!  O-la-la-LALA!

By the way, in honor of Bridgerton's dogs, I just ran into this:

"Bridgerton’s Beloved Corgi Is a Total Fraud
A lap dog historian exposes Newton as the fuzzy little faker he is."

https://slate.com/culture/2022/03/bridgerton-season-2-kate-sharma-dog-corgi-historical-accuracy.html

* I also think I mixed metaphor and o so badly!  

 

 

 

Oh I agree there shouldn’t be more than 4 seasons of Bridgerton , in fact I had hoped we would tick off both Anthony and Eloise this season. I haven’t read the books and I don’t intend to, so I can only look at the show as a production  in itself, not an adaptation

I think top of my dislike for season two is that I don't like the main characters. While I loved Daphne and Simon and their dynamic, I find Kate insufferable and boring and Anthony annoying and tiresome. Neither of them had any real character growth and their success was unearned. I always hated Eloise, she is a walking Twitter account not a character and season 2 completely refuses to recognize and address her character flaws, because she’s a glorified Twitter account. Edwina was interesting, with a compelling character arch but she had so little screen time and personal story that she didn’t have a chance to carry the show on her back. 

Beneath all that, however, season two felt stripped down of some important nuances and range of perspective season 1 had. Cause and effect within the context of the world season 1 built also disappeared. and when there’s not even mystery to fuel the plot, there’s virtually no chance for tension to occur. To compensate for all the lacking in character story and plot, it appeared to me that the direction prompted the otherwise talented actors to overdo certain scenes. 

Oh and at least season 1 had the grace to make up an excuse for Francesca’s missing. In season 2 she just plainly disappeared. I’m not saying I miss the background extra she was, but either write her out or do something with her. 

I did like the Featherington plot line. If you are looking for strong female characters, Lady Featherington is one of them. Not Kate, and definitely not Eloise. 

 

 

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

The Bubble

Hilarious. Watch it. 

[VigoTheCarpathian]

5 hours ago, Ran said:

https://youtu.be/QmHm79QY1X0

One of the sketches I will never forget from the Ben Stiller show, his DDL impression is unexplainably hilarious to me.

 

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

...I always hated Eloise, she is a walking Twitter account not a character...

I confess Eloise didn't much register with me in season 1, but none of them did, other than Portia!

Eloise seems like someone whom was known as, in London during that historical period, a Dining Room Radical; talk, but not that much doing. It applied across the gendered board. There were  indeed some women who not only talked but did do, and do a lot!  So not an unlikely personal someone like her might take on, if she really doesn't like the idea of balls and marriage.

Eloise was born into the Age of Revolutions, which provoked a great deal of sturm und drang in London  This is supposed to be the Regency, dating roughly, depending who is doing the dating, 1795 – 1837. The formal Regency was 1811 - 1820 -- the years which this alternate fantasy history seems to most resemble. Eloise is coming to age during the American War of Independence, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, the Bolivarian Revolution would explain the 'radicalism.'  Roughly 1820-1837 is the span the British solidly consolidated India fully into the Empire, no longer having European colonial power rivals challenging them for hegemony.

I sometimes wish the Show would inform us how we got from these period war events to this fairy tale of inclusivity and tolerance.  Even the fancy dancing explaining the Queen hasn't really taken my understanding, meaning I don't get it.  I enjoy the diversity and the fairy tale, but I know too much history not to have these questions come idling through the brain while I watch.

Another question -- Are the Bridgertons really as a family as sports/games competitive as the Kennedys notably were? 

 

[Heartofice]

Death on the Nile has some of the worst compositing I’ve seen in a big movie for a long time, I’m getting real Gods of Egypt vibes. It’s that bad

It kind of ruined the movie for me, hard to stay focused on the plot when all I can see is how botched most of the shots are, seemingly all filmed on a green screen on a 10ft sound stage. 
 

Mostly it made me keep thinking about how they either had no idea how to disguise the CGI, or were just too rushed to care.

If im watching a movie about death on the Nile, I’d like to be able to at least imagine the actors are on a boat, or left the country to film it. The entire time I know they are sitting in a warehouse somwhere while the directors tell them ‘we’ll fix it in post’

Except they didn’t. 

[RhaenysBee]

32 minutes ago, Zorral said:

I sometimes wish the Show would inform us how we got from these period war events to this fairy tale of inclusivity and tolerance.  Even the fancy dancing explaining the Queen hasn't really taken my understanding, meaning I don't get it.  I enjoy the diversity and the fairy tale, but I know too much history not to have these questions come idling through the brain while I watch.

Another question -- Are the Bridgertons really as a family as sports/games competitive as the Kennedys notably were? 

I think the show intentionally created a regency fantasy bubble, and doesn’t intend to insert itself into the actual historical context. It’s more like we are in a fictional early 19th century Great Britain. Personally I love that choice and I think fictionalizing the time period was the best decision they could have made. It saved them an abundance of trouble. 

As for Eloise, the inaction is one thing (though it could certainly be handled by the plot). what bothers me more is that her radicalism is narrowed down to the tiniest fragment possible: women’s rights of her own peers. Even though season 1 made a couple noteworthy attempts at showing that there’s more problems to the world than this, Eloise seems to remain completely oblivious to the fact that  a class system exists and even though she doesn’t have equal rights to men among her peers, she has the second best life the world she lives in can offer. Her radicalism comes not from empathy or learnedness, but from the obstacles of her own selfish desires. And yet she is presented (by the show) and perceived (by the internet audience at least) as the enlightened woman, instead of the selfish privileged rebel with zero self awareness. And there’s very little more to her character, she is socially awkward and a shit friend. 

I don’t know much about the Kennedys, but most of the Bridgerton clan was indeed established to be a hyper competitive bunch  

[Zorral]

Eloise, you know, bangs. Just personally, me, don't much like bangs in 1810-20.  

She will grow up though, and be a better person, due to tutelage of Mom (whom I do adore, and did even before Season 2), Daphne the Hive Giver and Kate of the Order of the Thrilling Stocking and Garter!  Looking forward to the next chapter of Pen vs. Eloise.

P.S.  The thing though is, me being me, I can't not know what it really was, so, like Eloise, I shall question it all from my platform of privilege of having been studying the Age of Revolution for a very long time! because slavery is my special subject.   You know I just cannot help it! 

[HexMachina]

On 4/1/2022 at 11:13 PM, HoodedCrow said:

Just watched the first episode of Bridgerton 2, and, do you know that the band played a strange version of “Material Girl”?!
Daphne did not make me break out, though. I adore…Polly Walker. This is all classic Romance, but smarter, with wonderful acting and production. 

That's one of the shows gimmicks, having classic covers of popular music. I came to share Alanis Morissette performing the classic covrr of You Oughta Know:

 

As for season 2, I enjoyed it. Overall it'd probably on par with Season 1, although I feel like the story between Daphne and the Duke worked better. I loved the addition of the Sharma family but I just d8dnt c9nnect with the story between Kate and the Viscount as much. The Whistledown stuff was better this season though and I found myself wanting more screen time form Eloise and Penelope.

The ending with Lady Featherington

Spoiler

Standing up for her daughters and sending the cousin away, felt unearned and a complete flip of the character so I wasn't a fan of that.

 

[RhaenysBee]

22 hours ago, Zorral said:

Eloise, you know, bangs. Just personally, me, don't much like bangs in 1810-20.  

She will grow up though, and be a better person, due to tutelage of Mom (whom I do adore, and did even before Season 2), Daphne the Hive Giver and Kate of the Order of the Thrilling Stocking and Garter!  Looking forward to the next chapter of Pen vs. Eloise.

P.S.  The thing though is, me being me, I can't not know what it really was, so, like Eloise, I shall question it all from my platform of privilege of having been studying the Age of Revolution for a very long time! because slavery is my special subject.   You know I just cannot help it! 

In think in Eloise’s case they didn’t even try. They just put a ribbon on the actress’s hair and that’s that. Didn’t particularly bother though the haircut is very modern. 

She needs to burn her hand a little and get a reality check and she’ll be fine. 

Oh no, I totally get it, I wouldn’t be able to shut out topics of interest. I am not able to shut out topics of interest even when I absolutely should. 

[HoodedCrow]

I noticed the bangs, too! 
When something is off like that there are usually reason. Eloise has to stand out from all the debs. ( visually) Eloise thinks of herself as a non conformist.( character). I suspect that they are trying to conceal her age, since she is supposed to be younger and there are siblings…

 

[RhaenysBee]

21 minutes ago, HoodedCrow said:

I noticed the bangs, too! 
When something is off like that there are usually reason. Eloise has to stand out from all the debs. ( visually) Eloise thinks of herself as a non conformist.( character). I suspect that they are trying to conceal her age, since she is supposed to be younger and there are siblings…

 

Yep, all things to consider when doing the character design. I do think Eloise wears too much makeup which makes her look older than she should. I suppose bangs have a youthful vibe, but the makeup counteracts it for me. The actress has such a youthful face she can pass as a teenager just fine, and light babyface makeup could help with that more than the mature tones the makeup artists use for her. I wonder what’s the idea behind that. Maybe it’s to set her apart too. 

[Zorral]

Nothing sets her apart more than how she handles her body -- walking, she literally jerks, sitting, she's slumping -- there's an awkwardness and lack of grace -- the grace Daphne, Kate and Edwina have in spades -- I swear all three spent most of their days taking ballet from the age of three -- that appears intentional. 

Another question: why do all the other women wear gowns on the model of Josephine Bonapart, the corsetless, empire waist, while the Queen continues to wear the wigs and gowns confected along the figure of Versailles in the 18th century?  Though those Queen wigs tower beyond anything even anybody at Versailles pre-Revolution could manage.  (I did read that they figured out new materials out of which to construct her wigs so they wouldn't be so heavy that she actually couldn't wear them.) 

[DireWolfSpirit]

1963's "Saladin"

Interesting to compare/contrast with "Kingdom of Heaven".

[Zorral]

7 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

1963's "Saladin"

Interesting to compare/contrast with "Kingdom of Heaven".

The one on Netflix?  I watched that.  Not made by Europeans!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057357/

Part of what interested me most in this film is that it was made by Egyptians, primarily -- where Saladin was mostly based in this period.  Though I think somehow a company in Spain was involved too?  Also keeping in mind that the Charleton Heston - Sophia Loren El Cid had come out in 1961, which was a Big Deal in Spain too, for all the reasons.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Oh nice Zorral, I shall try to see the 1961 "El Cid" as well then, hadn't thought of that, "El Cid" is fiction is it not?

And correct the 1963 Saladin appeared to be a Egyptian production. Contrasted with Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" it was interesting to see 2 varied looks at some of the same events.

[Derfel Cadarn]

On 4/1/2022 at 11:13 PM, HoodedCrow said:

Just watched the first episode of Bridgerton 2, and, do you know that the band played a strange version of “Material Girl”?!
Daphne did not make me break out, though. I adore…Polly Walker. This is all classic Romance, but smarter, with wonderful acting and production. 

Since season 1 the band has been doing ‘covers’ of contemporary songs. 

[Derfel Cadarn]

Looking forward to binging the last two episodes of Peaky Blinders

[DMC]

Just saw Paramount is doing a miniseries on the production of The Godfather - called The Offer.  Of course I immediately looked it up to see see who's playing whom.  Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts, Walking Dead) is playing Coppola.  I like it.  Also noticed real life mafia dons Joe Columbo, Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese are characters that have been cast.  Columbo is in the main cast and played by Giovanni Ribisi.  Columbo makes sense considering his involvement, but Gambino and Lucchese are..interesting.