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Watched, Watched, Watching: It's not the plane, it's the pilot


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2 hours ago, Ran said:

My convincing you to press on is probably one of the biggest successes I've had on these threads. Glad you're enjoying it so much!

Do share your thoughts on "Hush", the tenth episode of the season, when you get to it.

Your convincing me to press on is probably one of the best entertainment advice I’ve had. 

 

Hush was a masterpiece, and the fact that it was so in a different way than E8 makes both of episodes all the more sublime. It balanced a perfect proportion of every horror element in a hauntingly artful way. It was beautiful and moving both on the surface and in its depths. The special effects, visual design, cinematography and score were stunning to the point that it felt like a favorite Halloween film I never had. The loss of voice as a theme was explored as widely and deeply as thanksgiving, sprinkling in social commentary with such gentle nuance that’s not been on television for 10+ years. The special significance and impact for each character was weaved into the story with thoughtfulness and appropriately measured humor. It could all have crumbled over acting, but there wasn’t one scene where anybody overdid it. It was like a symphony, built from the strictest mathematics, yet smooth, beautiful and natural. I could fill pages with just how right it all was. 

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I watched the first couple of episodes of the new season of Only Murders in the Building. I thought they were both good and it continued to be as amusing as the first season while also shaking things up a bit in terms of the plot. I did think that the surprise celebrity cameo playing themselves worked better in the first season than in this one.

1 hour ago, RhaenysBee said:

Hush was a masterpiece, and the fact that it was so in a different way than E8 makes both of episodes all the more sublime.

It's definitely a strong contender for being the best episode of Buffy.

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What do you do when the star of your big budget film possibly gets himself canceled while you're post production? At least with Death on the Nile they could hide Hammer in an ensemble cast, not the same case with Ezra Miller and  The Flash.

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I've got D+ access for a little while so I decided to see what hte MCU was doing lately. I rewatched GotG Vol 1&2. I think they largely still hold up but I still think Yondu's death was a bit nonsensical. And the boss fight at the end of Vol 2 was a bit excessive. And I fundamentally disapprove of 5 post credit scenes. Definitely the most cinematic of the MCU films I think.

I also saw Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Black Widow. I wasn't that impressed with either of the TBH.

Dr. Strange 2 had some impressive visuals and some interesting ideas, but it just never seemed to flow for me. The editing could have been snappier and the first half seemed a bit too heavy on exposition and Maguffins. I liked the way final boss played out with the Chekov's gun from the prologue. That was clever.

I rolled my eyed at the orchestral version of the '90's animated X-Men theme. I know there's a fair amount of unironic love for that show on this board but I fucking hated it. So, so much yellow. The movie was OK. 

I think I liked Black Widow a little better. David Harbour was great. Flo Po was a nice addition. Scar Jo seemed a bit wooden to me. It was fine.

I'm sure if I thought about it I could find a dozen plot holes or story problems that bugged me but I'm just not that invested enough to care. 

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Have also got a Disney sub for this month, and last night watched Dr Strange 2 as an accompaniment to a celebratory payday takeout. It seemed to drag a lot - so much so that maybe half-an-hour in I was thinking of giving up on it and watching something else. Everything felt so familiar, not just in a comforting way like a revisiting a story-type you love and seeing it reworked, but familiar to the point of tedium. Also, I know a lot of Marvel/comics fans get a huge kick just out of seeing cameos by popular characters, but to me it feels like redundant filler unless something particularly interesting is done with those characters. 

That said, I stuck with it, and did enjoy Strange's encounter with his evil alter-ego, and with the space in the universe vacated by two of his other deceased selves. 

Spoiler

Zombie Strange was fun. I would have liked it if, rather than the final battle being a case of our Strange using the corpse as a marionette, something of the other Strange had been retained - so that it could have been a chance for the Strange we see in the dream at the start to enact a quasi-redemption. 

 

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General thoughts about all the episodes I went through yesterday. (Yes, the only thing I’m capable of doing in 38C is binging Buffy)

The body swap episode was so strong. It delivered on every front. The writing was subtle yet powerful and incredibly impactful. Masterfully written and acted, with moderation, feeling and thought. The monster-Giles/Spike dynamic has a special place in my heart as well, and even though he’s hardly a strong character (albeit most enjoyable to look at along with the other two commando guys) , Riley was finally given some substance and his dynamic with Buffy is improving. Another favorite aspect of the writing is the “subversion of expectations” (as we love to call it today). Buffy subversions are much like the rest of its ingenious writing, moderate, gentle, character-appropriate, sensible, impactful (as opposed to loud, self-serving, forgettable, out-of-character and unreasonable, as they are now). 

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Just binge-watched Only Murders in the Building (available on Disney). Started early this morning after waking circa 3am with a migraine and nausea which necessitated revisiting my breakfast several times. Am feeling much better now, and a lot of that has got to be down to how entertaining the show was. It's been ages since I laughed so much. The tone - playful, knowing, daft, with moments of pathos - is perfect. 

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I'm still determined to finish The Good Place this time around, but season 3 was never as good as the first two, and season 4 is kind of a slog. Still some nice quotes/ zingers, but... I'm tempted to give up and start season 2 of OMITB instead. Pleased to read it's as good as season 1.

 

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Watched The Two Towers again while painting some miniatures tonight. Man, both it and Fellowship really hold up still. The effects still look great, mostly thanks to a good mix of CGI and practical effects, but even then, a lot of the pure CGI stuff still looks fairly good, which is pretty damn good for a 20 year old movie.

The only outlier is the warg scene, which just looks noticeably worse than everything else in the movie. The pacing of it is also a bit odd as well. It really feels like an action scene that was thrown in just because they needed some action in the middle of the movie. Easily my least favorite action scene of the trilogy.

Also, the Arwen and Aragorn falls off a cliff stuff both directly before and after this really grinds the pacing down. If it wasn't for this section, I might like this better than Fellowship, but alas, Fellowship is still my favorite of the trilogy and that's unlikely to change.

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41 minutes ago, Durckad said:

Watched The Two Towers again while painting some miniatures tonight. Man, both it and Fellowship really hold up still. The effects still look great, mostly thanks to a good mix of CGI and practical effects, but even then, a lot of the pure CGI stuff still looks fairly good, which is pretty damn good for a 20 year old movie.

The only outlier is the warg scene, which just looks noticeably worse than everything else in the movie. The pacing of it is also a bit odd as well. It really feels like an action scene that was thrown in just because they needed some action in the middle of the movie. Easily my least favorite action scene of the trilogy.

Also, the Arwen and Aragorn falls off a cliff stuff both directly before and after this really grinds the pacing down. If it wasn't for this section, I might like this better than Fellowship, but alas, Fellowship is still my favorite of the trilogy and that's unlikely to change.

The Warg scene was only in the special editions or am I misremembering?

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Since Thursday I finished Pratt’s SEAL show [can’t even remember the name lol] Terminal something.
 

Pretty sure I slept through a few episodes, but couldn’t be bothered to skip back to what I remembered last. 

One thing I thought was different, for this type of show, were his hallucinations— probably the only thing that kept me interested enough to trudge through the rah rah. 

That and Constance Wu, though was good to see Tripplehorn as well.
 
 

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