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

[DaveSumm]

1 hour ago, Annara Snow said:

So time travel, explained through wormholes and radioactivity and *insert a bunch of other quantum physics SF babble* was deemed perfectly realistic and acceptable, but AUs and alternative timelines of character lives based on *insert more SF quantum physics babble explanations* are a step too far!

Time travel was the premise from the get go, and as time travel stories go, a catastrophe at a nuclear plant with some time-loopy attempts to stop it actually catalysing it? That’s pretty strong. That was a firm foundation for two seasons. Pretty much everything that happened in those two seasons worked off of that foundation.

If you think what happened in season 3 was that coherent, then good for you. But I’ve directed you to the old thread where I think I explain my problems; there is nothing remotely that coherent about how entanglement, or duplicates, or special freezes, or magic tunnels, or existing-just-long-enough-to-fix-the-thing, work. I know it’s a cop out to say I can’t actually remember the details of why that is right now, because it would take hours and probably a whole rewatch to rediscover those conclusions. But there it is. 

Anyway, I don’t think a strong case has been made that the show has really resonated long after it ended. I was a huge, huge fan and I just haven’t really thought about it or seen it discussed since then. Maybe 1899 will raise Dark’s profile if it’s good, I hope it is and I hope it does.

[Spockydog]

Got about half-an-hour into Chris Pratt's The Terminal List. Jesus, what a load of shite. Absolutely horrible. Someone give that man some prunes to eat.

 

 

[Corvinus85]

5 hours ago, dbunting said:

I watched Nope this weekend. I think it was pretty good and a fresh take on the subject at hand but I didn't think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread like some reviews I saw and don't think I'll watch it again.

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I like that the "UFO" was actually the animal itself and not a ship. I also like that the stuff falling, keys and what not was basically the animal pooping. One thing though, in the initial shot when his dad died you can see the items falling way off in the distance and close by and we know from later in the film that it can't do that since the stuff falls out of the opening in the bottom so they kind of messed up there.

Overall I would recommend this to anyone who is curious or is fans of the actors.

Spoiler

In the beginning, they couldn't see the alien, right? So if it was higher up, the dispersal area of the object would have been greater.

 

[Annara Snow]

5 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

Time travel was the premise from the get go, and as time travel stories go, a catastrophe at a nuclear plant with some time-loopy attempts to stop it actually catalysing it? That’s pretty strong. That was a firm foundation for two seasons. Pretty much everything that happened in those two seasons worked off of that foundation.

If you think what happened in season 3 was that coherent, then good for you. But I’ve directed you to the old thread where I think I explain my problems; there is nothing remotely that coherent about how entanglement, or duplicates, or special freezes, or magic tunnels, or existing-just-long-enough-to-fix-the-thing, work. I know it’s a cop out to say I can’t actually remember the details of why that is right now, because it would take hours and probably a whole rewatch to rediscover those conclusions. But there it is. 

Anyway, I don’t think a strong case has been made that the show has really resonated long after it ended. I was a huge, huge fan and I just haven’t really thought about it or seen it discussed since then. Maybe 1899 will raise Dark’s profile if it’s good, I hope it is and I hope it does.

Using yourself and whether you've thought about Dark in a while as evidence that the show has not "resonated" and is not talked about anymore... I like the solipsism of that. 

Meanwhile, I just did a YouTube search  and learned about 3 more YouTube reactors who have started their Dark reactions within the last month, in addition to those 20 or so I've already watched. Reactors are known for picking up unpopular and forgotten shows, it's not like they pick what to react based on the number of fan suggestions because it's about making money on Patreon. No, you must be right, the show is completely forgotten, after all, Baran Bo Odar only has 278 thousand followers on Instagram, a really small number for a showrunner/ director, and Dark's two main stars, Louis Hoffman and Lisa Vicari  might have over 1 million followers each, but that's probably due to...German films they've done or something. And the most active Dark fan account has only 135 thousand followers and got just over 25,000 thousand likes on it's latest post, clearly a sign of a show that's faded into obscurity.

[polishgenius]

[Veltigar]

I went to see Everything, Everywhere All At Once. Totally worth waiting to see it in the cinema and I cannot do anything but echo all the praise that has already been posted everywhere, because all of it is true (and that all at once).

If I might just add my two cents:

1. This is the type of film that makes other people want to make films. I expect reading articles with up and coming directors 30 years from now and seeing this cited as a major influence.

2. Apart from amazing visuals, action, acting, plotting, etc. I felt like the emotional core of the film strongly resonated with me. For me it is the type of movie that compels you to pick up the phone and call your loved ones. 

17 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

You're in for a treat.

Looking forward to it. Tonight probably the latest Better Call Saul episode and then from tomorrow more Yellowjackets 

17 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Same, I'm halfway through S1. The first few episodes are hit or miss and then it just flies and never stops until the end of the series. Wish it was a bigger hit.

The biggest crime of Die Another Day is that it didn't launch Toby Stephens' career into the stratosphere. It's probably that he didn't want to be a big movie star (him being acting royalty and all), but he demonstrates in Black Sails that he's the real thing every single episode.

18 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

I haven't had the rkind of esponses to the characters you name here (which seem heavily and only  from Walt's POV), so I don't see it like that.

  Reveal hidden contents

To be fair, I have been kind of spoiled from the start by GRRM's comment that "Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros"... although that sounds like a typical GRRM exaggeration (come on, George... I don't know how bad he will get, but I doubt he's gonna be worse than Ramsay, Gregor, Rorge and the Bloody Mummers, or even Tywin Lannister for that matter.

But anyway: while it's hard not to have sympathy for Walt due to his situation, and I do relate to him a lot in some aspects - the resentment of being underpaid and underappreciated in your work in spite of your high skills - and the fact he's been told he is going to die soon and can't even provide for his treatment or for his family (and this feels like a social criticism: something is very wrong with the fact that you can't make a living or pay for your medical  treatment as a teacher, but earn tons of money as a drug dealer; though on the other side, there's also the fact that Walt being a white middle class respectable-looking family guy is why no one suspects him). But it's also clear from the beginning that a lot of what he does it not just out of necessity, but pride. He has a massive chip on his shoulder, pride is why he refuses help from Gretchen and Elliot, and he even resents the idea of charity; and he enjoys the status of a man who can make a lot of money off his skills and provide for his family. It is not just a necessity, it's like a power trip - and that's even evident in the pilot, with how it affects his sexuality and the drug dealing makes him feel virile again. It becomes even more obvious by season 2 - he is clearly very proud of the fact that he is the best at what he does and that he is finally getting the recognition and money that he should based on his skills. Multiple times, he refers to it as you would to a normal job and cleatly gets self-fulfilmment from it. He only decides (temporarily) to quit in season 3 because of Skyler's reaction and because he doesn't want to lose his family,

But even those things are kinda relatable - the pride, the wish for professional self-fulfilment, for respect... The trailts that feel really disturbing to me and that make Walt less sympathetic are his arrogance and his disdain for people he sees as lesser - such as drug addicts - and how blase he was about the deaths of such people (the meth addicts, Combo...) - as opposed to Jesse, who was shaken deeply every time - and it all culminates when he lets Jane die - which is his act so far (as of 4x01) I find the least forgivable. It's also a part of his toxic relationship with Jesse - Walt genuinely cares about him (as seen in season 3) but he also has an incredibly patronizing attitude and treats Jesse like crap most of the time. Maybe feeling superior is a part of it (and maybe one of the reasons Walt is trying to play a pseudo-father because he is losing that status at home due to the divorce, and also, we've seen how jealous Walt is of his son looking up to Hank more than him). Another disturbing trait is how good Walt is at rationalizing his actions and finding excuses for them. Although my sympathy was restored somewhat when I saw he did feel real guilt (especially over Jane, when he nearly spilled out the secret to Jesse in 3x10, which was a great bottle episode where technically nothing happened aside from trying to kill a fly, but I was at the edge of my seat multiple times when it seemed Walt was on the verge of telling the truth).

Jesse is a major screw-up that no one takes seriously, but he also - as it becomes more apparent over time - has more heart than Walt and finds it harder to be as ruthless. Even when he really tries to be, as in season 3, when he was angry, clean of drugs post-rehab and reeling from Jane's death and also looking for revenge for Combo. But his impulsive actions messed things up even worse, forced Walt to take more extreme actions to protect both his life and Jesse's life, and eventually, to make Jesse commit a premeditated murder. So, after season 3, I can say that not only is Walt toxic to Jesse, but they have one of these "We can make each other worse" relationships.

As for the other characters, the only ones I did find really annoying in season 1 were Hank and Marie - Hank really went on my nerves with his overblown macho showboating attitude, and Marie was a bored kleptomaniac who lived in her own world. But after having seen seassns 2 and 3, they are among the most likable characters on the show.

I'm not sure why anyone would hate Walt Jr. except, I guess, TV viewers usually hate teenage children of main characters and find them annoying? One guy who watched BB that I talked to said he found the son the most annoying character. I didn't have any particular feelings about him to start with, but in seasons 2 and 3 I felt really sorry for him because he really believes his father is a good man and has no idea what's going on.

The Skyler hate, which I've heard a lot about, is perplexing. I didn't see anything annoying about her in season 1; in season 2, she was the only one who wasn't buying Walt's BS and was smart enough to start suspecting something was wrong, although he almost managed to fool her again; and calling her a shrew or whatever is just downright weird - she only had the nornal human reaction of anger to her husband lying to her and deceiving her while putting her and their family in such a terrible situation. I have a lot of sympathy for her because Walt put her in such a messed up situation with no good options (where the danger of disgrace and prison is bad enough, but Walt put the entire family in direct physical danger by getting involved iwth some very dangerous people), so I can understand why she's started to get involved with the money laundering and all. It's been clear from the start that, however angry she is, she can't find it in herself to report Walt and send him to prison, bring disgrace to the whole family  and break their son's heart, and she also still cares about Walt enough to worry about his safety, even though she doesn't want to take him back (and I hope she doesn't). She's trying to make the best out of a bad situation, but in the process she's become an accomplice. And while giving Marie money for Hank's recovery is understandable, she's doing to her sister the same Walt did to her. I can't imagine how Marie and Hank would feel if they knew his recovery was paid by drug money, and his brother-in-law was the drug-dealer he was looking for all that time. It's like Walt's increasing corruption is also corrupting people around him, like Skyler, which is making her an interesting and morally grey character too.

 

Good for you, although I think my reaction is a more extreme version of the usual response to the series. Sadly there are also people who never get over that first annoyance phase and who keep on hating on certain characters long past the initial set-up.

[Tywin et al.]

5 hours ago, Veltigar said:

The biggest crime of Die Another Day is that it didn't launch Toby Stephens' career into the stratosphere. It's probably that he didn't want to be a big movie star (him being acting royalty and all), but he demonstrates in Black Sails that he's the real thing every single episode.

Funny thing is during the first episode intro I was like, "I know that name, but from where?" After seeing his face I was certain I had seen him in something before and died laughing after looking him up on IMDB. That movie was so awful, but he was great in it.

I still can't wrap my head around why they thought it was a good idea to have an Asian man turn into a white guy.

[Isis]

I watched The Chair this week. Is that right, there were only six episodes? Seems pretty short for a US series. Is that what you would call an super ultra seriously limited series?

Having worked at a higher education institute for 20 years I see a lot of truth in the admin/old fashioned, set in their ways systems - so a lot of the procedural bits rang true with me. I liked the show and I wanted more than six eps to be honest. 

I'm now having a second stab at watching Yellow Jackets (on to ep 3). It's mildly intriguing and yet I am not fully hooked by it.

[IFR]

I absolutely love Dark, but the criticisms of the details of time travel in that show are quite valid. It's not a hard scifi show.

Spoiler

I thought how the show explained its version of "entanglement" was clear, though of course the mechanism of its triggering was left kind of vague (other than the magical dark matter apocalypse occurs, so superposition of timelines is now possible).

The non-deterministic resolution I thought worked, too. It followed the logic of the "science" presented in the show well enough, and was dramatically satisfying to me.

Great show.

[dbunting]

20 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

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In the beginning, they couldn't see the alien, right? So if it was higher up, the dispersal area of the object would have been greater.

 

Except

Spoiler

They couldn't see it because they weren't looking for it and it was in a cloud. The dispersal area was HUGE. I can buy that as a reason but why was it never that high again?

 

[Veltigar]

23 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Funny thing is during the first episode intro I was like, "I know that name, but from where?" After seeing his face I was certain I had seen him in something before and died laughing after looking him up on IMDB. That movie was so awful, but he was great in it.

I still can't wrap my head around why they thought it was a good idea to have an Asian man turn into a white guy.

Nancy Reagan knows and she would have just said "no" 

[Tywin et al.]

10 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

Nancy Reagan knows and she would have just said "no" 

All the rumors are the Throat Goat rarely said no.

[Isis]

Right, I've finished Yellowjackets. It became more interesting when I had the luxury of spare time to sit and watch it all in one go. The pandemic (not literally having Covid, although I did have it this month for possibly the first time) has wreaked havoc with my ability to concentrate on anything that takes a while to get into. My attention span is so short these days.

Anyway, lots of good performances (always been a huge Juliette Lewis fan) and I am a sucker for anything where people get lost in the wilderness. I really enjoy all the 'deep dark secrets from the past', where women are presumed to be these harmless creatures who are unable stand up for themselves. 

I thought I saw that Black Sails was available on Prime again... oh no, wait, just 'Inside S2'? Humph.

[Zorral]

I looked into the overamped/hyped NF Grey Man last night, and looked askance immediately.  They lost me completely when shoehorning in for jeopardy an adolescent girl, who not only is a barely past tweenhood, but also has a life-threatening condition. That kind of cheap, cynical use of 'threat to a girl-child-dog-etc.' will never fly with me, not ever.  Who thought this was writing to grab an audience?

So I eye-cleansed with another Miss S / Miss Fisher's Mysteries in Shanghai from HBO.  The ladies in Miss S are so pretty, as pretty as their clothes, though oddly, one cannot miss, that though this is supposedly Shanghai in the 1930's, the elite women such as Miss S dress in couture from the late 1940's - early - mid 1950's. Which strikes me, at least, as, odd.  Of course their shoes are pure 2022, not at all 1930's either.  But all are beautiful, and exquisitely fabricated.  And the actress who plays Miss S has terrific comic timing.  The whole cast is very good.

The major difference between the Australian production of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and the Shanghai-Netflix production of Miss S is there are chase scenes and fights of the sorts seldom, if ever, in the Australian version. Since Miss S is 2022, and Miss Fisher's Murder  Mysteries is 2012-2015, which isn't that much of time difference, this seems a deliberate decision to have more 'action' than the Australian version.

 

[dbunting]

6 hours ago, Veltigar said:

Nancy Reagan knows and she would have just said "no" 

Nothing from nothing but it still burns my ass to know that all the while she was peddling this just say no crap her husbands administration was literally dumping drugs into the US. Anyway,,,

Didn't really watch anything recently so hey, shark week I actually watched 30 min of it and renewed my fear for the ocean!

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

Yeah, Grey Man was ok. Not great not Terrible. Gosling was good. Evans does a good eccentric bad guy.

Nope was better. I’d recommend it but I wouldn’t spend the money on Imax.

it occurs to me that 2023 will be the year of Florence Pugh. She’s in 4 films coming out next year; Don’t Worry Darling, which looks good, Dune 2, Oppenheimer and The Good Person (which I’ve never heard of). Presumably she’ll also have an MCU appearance as well. Get her agent a fruit basket because someone’s been putting in the overtime.

[Argonath Diver]

Watched Everything, Everywhere All at Once. I'm thoroughly happy I avoided all spoilers and plot summaries. All I knew was Michelle Yeoh was in it and great, and it was some kind of mind-bender sci-fi.

I won't even comment on anything more, with the hope that someone else watches it as blind as I was. I had an absolutely terrific time with it. Most fun I've had watching a movie in a long time.

Oh, I got most of the way through The Old Man, but I think I'm giving it up. As much as I enjoy Jeff Bridges, I found his character and literally everyone else on screen so thoroughly dislikable that I find I have little interest in seeing how all the over-serious philosophical conversations mixed in with daytime soap opera intrigue wraps up. The musical queues during Shocking Moments were ridiculous to the point that I laughed out loud at a few of them. Over and over, I kept thinking "No one ever fucking talks like this. Ever."

I did enjoy his very, very good dogs. 

[BigFatCoward]

I'm watching late but I'm finding S4 of Mrs Maisel hard work. It's just getting too...... I don't know the word, contrived and farcical maybe? 

[dbunting]

1 hour ago, Argonath Diver said:

Oh, I got most of the way through The Old Man, but I think I'm giving it up. As much as I enjoy Jeff Bridges, I found his character and literally everyone else on screen so thoroughly dislikable that I find I have little interest in seeing how all the over-serious philosophical conversations mixed in with daytime soap opera intrigue wraps up. The musical queues during Shocking Moments were ridiculous to the point that I laughed out loud at a few of them. Over and over, I kept thinking "No one ever fucking talks like this. Ever."

I did enjoy his very, very good dogs. 

My wife is watching this and keeps trying to get me to start it. 

@BigFatCoward I keep forgetting about S4 of Ms Maisel, S3 wasn't very good IMO so I have put it on the back burner. Same with the new Peaky Blinders, just haven't gotten around to starting it yet.

[Argonath Diver]

32 minutes ago, dbunting said:

My wife is watching this and keeps trying to get me to start it. 

From the solid reviews around the net and from people I know - even my parents watched it ! - I really thought I'd enjoy it. I increasingly found myself guffawing and wanting to fast forward through entire confrontations, though. Just a bit too heavy-handed for me, but I'm happy to see Jeff Bridges as magnetic as ever.

I've finally begun Only Murders in The Building and it's a ton of fun so far. Alas I've lately been very much missing my time working in New York, and that show's made me a bit lonely for the place, despite it being a changing place these days in the years I've been gone.