Watch, Watched, Watching: November Rain

[Ran]

On 11/20/2022 at 10:23 PM, Nictarion said:

Watched a couple films last night. The first was The Wonder. It was ok. Probably not something I’d ever watch again, but Florence Pugh was fantastic as per usual. It’s worth seeing for her alone. It has an interesting (and unexpected) way it opens and closes the film. 

Just saw this as well. Yes, Pugh's excellent, it's well-shot, but there was something a little lacking. I feel like the beat they missed had to do with exploring the villagers and how they saw what was going on further than they did. They come in periodically to reveal different factional views of it all, but it feels a bit weightless because the farm is it's own little universe and so much happens there instead.

I thought the opening and close was rather bold, but also rather navel-gazing and pretentious. Did not care for it and the film would have been improved without it.

Spoiler

Yes, everyone in the film has their story about what is happening, and the whole thing is a film production giving us a story, but... we don't need that for this meta, fourth-wall-breaking moment.

 

[Zorral]

This appears to be a perfectly lovely new series for those of us who live with little kids -- from Netflix.

In ‘Spirit Rangers,’ Elders Playing Elders
The pioneering Native actors Wes Studi and Tantoo Cardinal star as the Sun and Moon in this animated Netflix show about an Indigenous family.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/25/arts/television/spirit-moon-wes-studi-tantoo-cardinal.html

Quote

 

.... The preschool series, which premiered on Indigenous Peoples Day, Oct. 10, features Studi as the Sun and Cardinal as the Moon. (They appear together in an episode about an eclipse.)

“Spirit Rangers” has an all-Native American writers’ room, led by the first-time showrunner Karissa Valencia, who is half-Chumash and half-Mexican, and is executive produced by Chris Nee, the creator of “Doc McStuffins.”

Each episode opens in a fictional California national park, where the Skycedar family live with their three children, Kodi, Summer and Eddie, voiced by the newcomers Wacinyeya Iwasaka Yracheta, Isis Celilo Rogers and Talon Proc Alford, respectively.

The Skycedar kids have the secret ability to tap into the spirit world, where they transform via their spinning beaded medallions into a bear, a hawk and a turtle, and story lines introduce them to animals from all over the world. Grounding the series as the sibling elders Sun and Moon, Studi and Cardinal voice “the spirits that are watching over the park,” Valencia said.

“How beautiful is that?” she said, explaining that the actors are “also our elders in the community, and the people who have created the path for people like us to keep coming.” ....

 

 

[BigFatCoward]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

This appears to be a perfectly lovely new series for those of us who live with little kids -- from Netflix.

In ‘Spirit Rangers,’ Elders Playing Elders
The pioneering Native actors Wes Studi and Tantoo Cardinal star as the Sun and Moon in this animated Netflix show about an Indigenous family.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/25/arts/television/spirit-moon-wes-studi-tantoo-cardinal.html

 

It's my daughter favourite. It's on all the fucking time. Coyote is my favourite character. 

There really needs to be a new series soon as there's only about 10 episodes and I've seen all of them about 30 times. 

[Zorral]

10 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

There really needs to be a new series soon as there's only about 10 episodes and I've seen all of them about 30 times

O ya! Since this interview is in today's edition, maybe that means a new season will drop soon?  Maybe you all got it earlier too?  It evidently didn't go up here until October.

[DireWolfSpirit]

Watched the Wakanda movie.

Its a full length movie, couldve used an intermission after about 90 minutes, but apparently that wasnt deemed necessary for audiences.

[Zorral]

Wednesday (2022) season 1. I've done 4 episodes so far.

Enjoy its fun and the sly, meta joking immensely. The visual jokes are funny, as with the opening shot of Nancy Reagan High School, from which Wednesday is about to be expelled. The cast is equal to all the absurdities, which is what keeps the show  -- at least these episodes – from being the same dull samey of such shows.  Among the cast are Gwendoline Christie (GoT’s Brienne), playing the Nevermore Academy’s head mistress, Christina Ricci (who was Wednesday in the film), the ‘normie’ teacher, Miss Thornhill, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Wednesday’s mom, Morticia Addams. There's even an appearance in the third episode of Sophia Nomvete, who plays Princess Disa in RoP. 

Edgar Allan Poe was one of the founding old boys of Nevermore. From the gitgo the audience recognizes tropes from any number of kids’ and YA magic schools in print and on screen, particularly, of course, the Potters, and old family school secrets. However, it is a series, so doubtless it become Sabrina the Teenage Witch or Riverdale, which I initially enjoyed, then bored me before the end of the second season. They Say the first episodes, directed by Tim Burton, are indeed very good, but the last episodes, without his direction, lose luster.

In Nevermore Wednesday Addams is still an outsider/other since she isn’t a witch or one of any of the groups/tribes of  outsiders’ such as weres, vamps, sirens, etc. at Nevermore (but then, neither was Poe!). Nevertheless she does have a familiar, so to speak, Thing, who/which? is a terrific character in its own right, a sidekick that won’t be kicked so to speak, even by Wednesday, to whom it is devoted. No wonder she doesn’t care about having friends, since she’s got Thing. Thing plausibly enables the show to be that common entry into teenage directed programming, a girl sleuth-detective. The show’s more like Nancy Drew than ye olde Addams Family.

There is a dance number toward the end of the 4th episode -- every show needs one now, it seems -- which has the chattering class raving.  It came over to me though as the currently trendy risible ‘choreography’ of the kind that made me want to cover my eyes in both HotD and The Empress. In the context of Wednesday though, it works, since the surrounding milieu is the present, not a pretend early middle ages or 19th C Vienna. But why The Cramps for the soundtrack? These kids at Nevermore are at least 3-4 generations later! The Cramps had a long run, but nevertheless they were inactive already by 2009, which is 13 years ago, nearly a generation itself in time.

So far the show has not answered the ever present questions in mind while watching:  Why did Wednesday's parents put her in one 'normie' h.s. after another when she so clearly isn't cut out for that? What made Wednesday so determined to believe she isn't like her parents?  We all understand adolescent rebellion and associated states, but within the context of this show and characters, this is a perpetual irritation. But there are 4 more episodes to go, which may answer the questions.
 

[Derfel Cadarn]

On the penultimate episode of Gangs of London season 2. Great series

[Sw33t Summ3r Ch1ld]

I started watching the show Lucifer    It's alright for another show to watch all day sometimes just seeing what's on Sling TV.

Totally watch the movie Amelie. I did a paper about it in college that stated Amelie was like a hero because she made such an impact on those people's lives to change their lives. And saved the day for several of them. It's special to me. And it's so feel-good.

[Spockydog]

3 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

On the penultimate episode of Gangs of London season 2. Great series

Is that squinty-eyed bloke still in it? Jesus, he's shit.

 

[JGP]

26 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Is that squinty-eyed bloke still in it? Jesus, he's shit.

 

lol got to wonder at the chances of survivng an injury like that over the timespan he did. 

This show has wicked fight choreography, but the gunplay is getting sillier than silly and now everyone is apparently Highlander except for Alex.  

 

edit: seriously, Elliot should be a shambling, singular wound of fresh and old injury  

[Corvinus85]

Finished Derry Girls. It was a final great season but I was bothered by the ending of episode 6.

Spoiler

It was a too much to give such a heartbreaking moment to Clare, just after she found some happiness. Why? The only silver lining is that it set up the hilarious phone conversation in the finale. 

 

[Mindwalker]

I binged Derry Girls within a couple of days. Took me a while to get into it (and I needed subtitles at first), but then I enjoyed it. I thought the third season was weaker overall.

I also agree with @Corvinus85' post above.

Spoiler

What was the point anyway? Just for a shocker? It's not like they had the time to explore any of the fallout.

I also thought the

Spoiler

sudden romantic plot with James

was quite superfluous and came completely from left field; thankfully, they didn't really explore that, either.

Before that, I watched Good Omens. Mildly amusing, and David Tennant was a hoot. Also, tons of

Spoiler

shippyness between the two mains. I bet AO3 is full of slash fic!

ETA: Yup, I checked: 38,284 Works of Aziraphale/Crowley stories! LOl.

Generally, I don't think I love the narrative style of Terry Pratchett. Tons of interesting/ fun ideas, but...

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Been watching The English. Everything about this show has been excellent so far.

Will there be a season 2 or is this a limited series?

[AncalagonTheBlack]

3 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Been watching The English. Everything about this show has been excellent so far.

Will there be a season 2 or is this a limited series?

Currently on episode 3.

'Shived by a cracker" 

[3CityApache]

3 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Will there be a season 2 or is this a limited series?

The latter. 

I liked it a lot, though i found the finale somewhat underwhelming. 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Didnt remember the release date, but a new John Wick movie is previewing in theatres.

[maarsen]

On 11/19/2022 at 2:33 PM, Zorral said:

With episode 6, now we know what that war was, that so bonded the Burton posse, while so physically damaging Connor -- and we also know why Connor got so maimed. 

  Hide contents

The war was in/with Texas -- North Carolina going to war with Texas is kind of hard to swallow, yes -- and Connor was suckered into trying to save a dog that the Texans had wired up as a bomb.

How many episodes is the Peripheral to be? I'm thinking with the state we are in now, maybe two more eps, which is what I expect, won't be enough to wind it all up.  There's been no announcement of a second season, despite it capturing the largest share of the streaming audience in October. 

There is sort of a sequel to the book called Agency. Apparently there will be a third book also but since I really don't follow author's websites someone else may be able to tell us more about when or if it is coming.

[Zorral]

Ya; This is the Jackpot Trilogy. 

Though I lump Patterns in there too, though it doesn't belong. Ha! Coz it's a different trilogy. Ha2!  Of course, tv isn't the books, because that's how it is. Ha3!

[TheLastWolf]

On 11/23/2022 at 5:25 PM, TheLastWolf said:

Goncharov

.

Scorcese

[RumHam]

I finally had that moment where the kid left and you want to finish the stupid minions movie anyway.