Watch, Watched, Watching: No Dragons Allowed

[RhaenysBee]

I live for Sawyer reading to the baby.  and at this point my favorite character is Locke though it’s a very tough choice between him and Sayid. They are certainly followed by Hurley and Charlie and the Michael-Jin dynamic grew on me as well. 

[RumHam]

I finally got around to watching the movie X. I wish more movies got their own threads here, as I remember people talking about it when it came out but finding the discussion in these threads is basically impossible. Anyway I really liked it and look forward to the prequel and potential sequel. 

Spoiler

I think it was working as like a lost episode of The Deuce before all the murder started. All the characters were likable, part of me wishes we'd gotten a bit more time with them before shit kicked off. The scene where "church-mouse" tries to unlock the basement door and gets her hand chopped up really got me. 

I didn't really need the reveal at the end that Maxine was the televangelist's daughter. Unless it sets something up for the sequel. I loved the end with them finding the camera though. That they're going to get that film developed hoping it will shed some light on what happened and just find a porno cracks me up to no end. 

 

[RhaenysBee]

I’m crying so hard. I hope Vincent survives the island and takes care of Shannon. 

[DMC]

41 minutes ago, RhaenysBee said:

I’m crying so hard. I hope Vincent survives the island and takes care of Shannon. 

Guessing you just finished Exodus Part 1?

Spoiler

Walt having to tell Vincent to go back is an amazing touch.

 

[SpaceChampion]

Paper Girls canceled by Amazon, Legendary shopping it around.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Tom Cruise fought hard to have Top Gun: Maverick delayed to be released in theaters, so I thought the ultimate way to say fuck you to him was to watch it on the smallest screen possible 30,000 feet in the air.

It's a solid film, but not anywhere close to the hype and praise some people are giving it.

[RhaenysBee]

10 hours ago, DMC said:

Guessing you just finished Exodus Part 1?

  Reveal hidden contents

Walt having to tell Vincent to go back is an amazing touch.

 

Well the crying started when 

Spoiler

Walt gave Vincent to Shannon and came right back when he started to swim after him and he had to send the pooch back.

Heartbreaking. 
 

Spoiler

I also hope Vincent will find and rescue Walt. He did run into the jungle because he knew Walt was back on the island. I’m counting on this goodboi. 

 

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, RhaenysBee said:

Well the crying started when 

Heartbreaking. 

Indeed.  The entire scene with the 

Spoiler

raft taking off

is just tissue-filled hope springs eternal.

[Darryk]

Lost did make me emotional a lot of the time.

In season 1 I recall:

Spoiler

Locke's "don't tell me what I can't do" followed by the reveal that he was paralysed and that his legs were healed by the island.

Sawyer telling Jack about his dad.

Charlie and the moth.

 

[RhaenysBee]

“Are you going to lie to the baby?”  
And I changed my mind, Hurley is my favorite. And jack annoys the shit out of me because I relate to him the most. 

[Darryk]

Fall (2022).

Best friends Becky and Hunter get stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot radio tower

I was wondering how they could keep this premise interesting for 2 hours but I actually found it quite intense and visceral.

In terms of my enjoyment levels I'd probably say 8/10 but I'd give it 7/10 as a film because it doesn't really have any rewatch value.

[williamjm]

On 9/9/2022 at 11:50 AM, RhaenysBee said:

I live for Sawyer reading to the baby.  and at this point my favorite character is Locke though it’s a very tough choice between him and Sayid. They are certainly followed by Hurley and Charlie and the Michael-Jin dynamic grew on me as well. 

I think people talked a lot about the mystery of what was going on being the reason for Lost's success but I think it could have been more about the characters. It did have a lot of interesting and varied characters (along with a few who were just dull or annoying). In the aftermath of Lost there were a lot of attempts to make mysterious shows like Flash Forward, The Event, Invasion and probably plenty more I've now forgotten but I think they probably all failed because they didn't really manage to interest viewers in their characters.

[Heartofice]

3 minutes ago, williamjm said:

I think people talked a lot about the mystery of what was going on being the reason for Lost's success but I think it could have been more about the characters. It did have a lot of interesting and varied characters (along with a few who were just dull or annoying). In the aftermath of Lost there were a lot of attempts to make mysterious shows like Flash Forward, The Event, Invasion and probably plenty more I've now forgotten but I think they probably all failed because they didn't really manage to interest viewers in their characters.

At the time I used to find all the character backstory stuff incredibly frustrating because it slowed everything down so much. I also didn’t actually think the characters were all that interesting back then either.

Looking back though, almost every one of them stood out and and was memorable, and you are right, you can’t say that about any of those terrible attempts to replicate the Lost formula.

I will say that at least part of Lost’s success hinges on its ability to trick you into thinking that something incredibly complex and well thought out is going on, that the show is a puzzle wanting to be solved. I spent too many hours reading theories at the time. Now that all sounds incredibly naive of me. No shows are that clever, the writing process doesn’t allow for that level of intricacy and smartness. Not that they were just making it up as they went along, but the show was never going to be what a lot of people dreamed it was.

[DMC]

6 minutes ago, williamjm said:

In the aftermath of Lost there were a lot of attempts to make mysterious shows like Flash Forward, The Event, Invasion and probably plenty more I've now forgotten but I think they probably all failed because they didn't really manage to interest viewers in their characters.

My favorite was Terra Nova which basically was "LOST but with dinosaurs!"  Your point is absolutely right - the reason the show was so successful was the ensemble that had something for everybody (or more precisely a character for everybody to identify with).

I remember when my brother first made me watch the show.  He was like, this character John Locke is awesome!  I was like..seriously, the character's name is John Locke?    But it worked, and ended up I really enjoy all their philosopher homages.

Anyway, @RhaenysBee, your accounting of the show is really making me want to do a rewatch again.  I shouldn't already, but...particularly the end of Exodus Part 1 you just mentioned, that always gets me.

[RumHam]

Yeah I'm pretty jealous of @RhaenysBee I wish I could experience Lost again for the first time.

I just hope no one spoils the reveal of 

Spoiler

how Jack got his tattoos

for her.

[DMC]

22 minutes ago, RumHam said:

I just hope no one spoils the reveal of 

  Reveal hidden contents

how Jack got his tattoos

for her.

LOL.  If you notice I did already allude to that episode...

[williamjm]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

My favorite was Terra Nova which basically was "LOST but with dinosaurs!"  Your point is absolutely right - the reason the show was so successful was the ensemble that had something for everybody (or more precisely a character for everybody to identify with).

I think Terra Nova is a perfect example of a show thinking it has to be focusing on a mystery when it should clearly have been focusing on dinosaurs.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I’m still watching the Alone spinoff series.  The Skills Challenge is very entertaining.  I hope it gets renewed for a second season.  Frozen however is a bit disappointing.  It seems that in the end there might not be a winner.  If The History Channel makes a second season of Frozen, I hope they find contestants that are new to Alone, rather than having a group of all-stars.

Also, I was a little confused about the rules in the newest episode of Frozen.  One of contestants made a fish trap.  I thought that those were illegal in Labrador, Canada.

[RhaenysBee]

13 hours ago, DMC said:

Anyway, @RhaenysBee, your accounting of the show is really making me want to do a rewatch again.  I shouldn't already, but...particularly the end of Exodus Part 1 you just mentioned, that always gets me.

Oh do it. Even if it’s a rewatch, dusting off “old” shows proved to be the best choice of entertainment for me this year.  I really enjoy Lost, and well, I don’t need to detail the ecstatic tv experience I found Buffy to be. 

And the first rewatch of Gilmore Girls, Charmed, (Starz) Spartacus, Once Upon a Time and Gossip Girl was pure joy as well. 

I do want to rewatch Xena and Hercules which I both loosely followed as a child for purely the nostalgia. And the Borgias and Tudors which were my teen favorites (though both went downhill after the first one or two seasons, but the sentimental ties remain, especially with Borgias)

11 hours ago, RumHam said:

Yeah I'm pretty jealous of @RhaenysBee I wish I could experience Lost again for the first time.

I just hope no one spoils the reveal of 

  Reveal hidden contents

how Jack got his tattoos

for her.

 It vaguely crossed my mind that there would be a backstory as a tattoo is the most un-Jack thing in the world, but now I’m hyped to find out. 

9 hours ago, williamjm said:

I think Terra Nova is a perfect example of a show thinking it has to be focusing on a mystery when it should clearly have been focusing on dinosaurs.

Never heard of that. My first association was Terra Nostra but that’s a soap my grandparents watched in the late 90s and there weren’t no dinosaurs in that  

[Darryk]

2 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

I do want to rewatch Xena and Hercules which I both loosely followed as a child for purely the nostalgia. And the Borgias and Tudors which were my teen favorites (though both went downhill after the first one or two seasons, but the sentimental ties remain, especially with Borgias)

Damn I loved those shows as a kid, especially the music.

The Hercules episode with the minotaur was actually pretty damn good, not sure it will hold up now but I remember it being a standout episode at the time.

I was 13 when I was watching those series and I remember Lucy Lawless giving me special feelings.

Another really cheesy show that I loved as a kid was Sinbad, with a Canadian playing the supposed-to-be-Persian title character.